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The strike comes as part of a wave of industrial action in Britain, which began with the council workers' strike in the July of the same year, and continues with, for example, 95% of the UK's postal workers voting for industrial action. [1]
The first few weeks of the planned action were postponed while negotiation took place. The first period, a two day strike, began at 18:00 (6pm) on Wednesday 13th November and ended at 18:00 on Friday 15th November. Unless some reconciliation could be brokered, the following periods of strike were planned to follow it:
The armed forces have been providing emergency cover during the strike, using the vintage Green Goddess engines as part of Operation Fresco . As there are a limited number of military hydraulic cutting teams available, it is likely that emergency amputations may be necessary to free road accident victims from crashes.
Inevitably, as everybody involved admits, this cover won't really be sufficient, and the strike will put lives at risk. Each side places the responsibility entirely with the other; the FBU say that their employer's failure to meet their demands is the cause of the strike. Many fear that lives will be lost in fires because of a lack of a prompt response by emergency services.
The first few weeks of the planned action were postponed while negotiation took place. The FBU rejected an offer that would amount to 11% over two years from a review body headed by Sir George Bain , and are unwilling to accept reforms to their working conditions.
On March 19th 2003 leaders of the FBU and negotiators for the local authority employers reached a provisional agreement based on a three year pay settlement and an understanding that modernisation measures would be subject to some measure of local negotiation. To the surprise of many observers, this was voted down by local area FBU representatives the following day.
On June 12th 2003 the dispute ended with the firefighters accepting a pay deal worth 16% over three years linked to changes to working conditions.
Many, including the firefighters themselves, believe that the British public are largely behind the firefighters, and see the government as intransigent and prepared to squander billions on supporting US war efforts whilst underpaying brave public servants. For example, the FBU branch secretary at Sale, Cheshire fire station says that the strike has received a "tremendous amount of support from the public... [it] has been fantastic." [2]
Many British trade unions, such as the RMT, have expressed solidaritySolidarity ( Polish is a Polish trade union federation founded in September 1980, originally led by Lech Walesa. In the 1980s, it gathered a broad anti-communist social movement ranging from people associated with the Roman Catholic Church down to members, particularly at the rally on September 2September 2 is the 245th day of the year (246th in leap years). There are 120 days remaining. Events 31 BC Roman Civil War: Battle of Actium Off the western coast of Greece, forces of Octavian defeat troops under Mark Antony and Cleopatra. 1666 The Great.
Whilst public respect for firefighters has generally been high, some members of the public resent what they perceive to be an attempt by the firefighters to abuse their position for financial gain, and regard their willingness to put lives at risk as a form of extortionExtortion is a criminal offense, which occurs when a person obtains money, behaviour, or other goods and/or services from another by wrongfully threatening or inflicting harm to his person, reputation, or property. Euphemistically, refraining from doing h. This view is expressed by many of the right wing newspapers and tabloidA tabloid is a newspaper — especially in the United Kingdom — that uses the tabloid format, which is roughly 23½ by 14¾ inches per spread. This is the smaller of two standard newspaper sizes; the larger newspapers, associated with higher-quality journaliss, particularly The SunSee Sun (disambiguation) for other meanings of the word "Sun", and other newspapers known as "The Sun The Sun a daily newspaper published in the United Kingdom, has the highest circulation of any daily English-language newspaper in the world, standing at and the Daily MailThe Daily Mail and its Sunday edition the Mail on Sunday are British newspapers, first published in 1896. For many years, it has had a right-wing editorial slant. For most of its history it was a broadsheet but is currently published in a tabloid format..
The head of the Fire Brigades Union is Andy Gilchrist .