UK firefighters will go on strike tomorrow

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Tuesday, 12 November, 2002, 14:26 GMT Fire strike on as pay talks fail

Firefighters will go ahead with a national strike on Wednesday after their union rejected the 11% pay offer recommended by an independent review.

Firefighters' leader Andy Gilchrist angrily rejected both the pay offer and the review, saying government's interventions in the pay dispute had been "despicable".

The 48 hour national strike will start on Wednesday evening.

Three other eight-day strikes are planned for before Christmas - the first national walkouts for 25 years.

But their employers said on Tuesday they would not give in to "bully boy tactics".

John Rainsford of the Local Government Association said there was a need for a more "streamlined, focused and flexible" fire service and an end to "restrictive union practices".

He said: "We will not yield to unrealistic union wage demands nor capitulate to bully boy tactics designed to hold this country to ransom and put lives at risk."

Downing Street said the civil contingencies committee would meet on Wednesday to consider how to respond to the firefighters' strike.

Strike dates

13-15 November Starts and ends at 1800 GMT

22-30 November Starts/ ends 0900

4-12 December Starts/ ends 0900

16-24 December Starts/ ends 0900

Emergency cover during the strikes would be provided by the military, equipped with Green Goddess fire tenders.

The independent review had recommended the 11% pay rise over two years, linked to changes in working practices. The union is demanding 40%.

Mr Gilchrist said the union had spent six months trying to negotiate a way through the dispute.

But he said there had been two "despicable interruptions" by the government who, he said, seemed intent on provoking a national strike action in the fire service.

He said: "We have had no alternative (but) to reject a derisory and insulting offer to some of the finest public servants in the world."

Mr Gilchrist announced with "incredible regret" that the strike would go ahead and blamed the intervention of the Bain report which, he said, had scuppered the talks.

Mr Gilchrist, who was cheered by firefighters demonstrating outside the talks, said he was not worried that public opinion would desert the firefighters.

He also rejected government claims that it was irresponsible, at a time of heightened security tension, to go on strike.

The dispute at a glance

The collapse of the pay talks came as hundreds of firefighters attended a funeral in Leicester for firefighter Bob Miller, who was killed on duty last month in a factory fire. A 45-minute service at the city's cathedral was broadcast to crowds outside.

Sir George Bain, who headed the independent review of the fire service, said: "I don't believe the inquiry has scuppered the chances of a resolution.

"In the longer term it provides the only basis on which any kind of rational and equitable deal can be done."

He said both sides would have to return to the negotiating table, whether or not there was a strike, and he said his proposals would be there for them to work on.

-- Anonymous, November 12, 2002


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