UPDATE: Strike vote passes, 79% in favor. Scroll down for details.
BACK IN AUGUST FIREGEEZER TOLD about the London (UK) Fire Brigade giving the entire brigade of 5,557 uniformed employees a 90-day notice of termination. In other words, come November 11 (Armistice Day at that) every employee would be fired unless they knuckle under to the department’s demand for a contract change, specifically a revision in the work schedule. Read our earlier posting HERE for the background details of this conflict. The general plan is to fire everybody and then hire them back under new, arbitrary work rules, thus negating the current contract.
Since then, there has been no resolution in the negotiating between the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) and the Fire Authority. For the past month, the firefighters have been refusing all overtime work. A strike vote has been called and the entire membership has been polled on whether to go on a full strike at the end of this month or not. Yesterday (Wednesday) the FBU issued a press release that states:
The ballot result on the question of a London firefighters’ strike ends tomorrow (Thursday 14 October), and the result will be available by about 3 pm. (10 am Eastern time in the U. S….ed.) As soon as it is available, a media notice will be sent out.FBU general secretary Matt Wrack will be available for journalists or broadcasters who may wish to talk to him, from 3 pm until about 4.30 pm at the Trades Union Congress, Great Russell Street, London WC1B 3LS.
If FBU members vote in favour of a strike, the strike dates will not be announced tomorrow, because the Union wishes to give time for the London Fire Brigade to withdraw the letters sacking all London firefighters.
Instead, strike dates will be announced on the afternoon of Friday 15 October at about 2.30 pm. A media release will be sent out at about 2.30 pm.
The Fire Authority is now preparing for a strike action by making some contingency plans. They have made a contract with a private firm to provide strikebreakers to work on the fire engines and yesterday they withdrew 27 firetrucks from duty and removed them to safe storage to be used if needed by the contractors. In previous strikes the Army supplied labor and equipment to provide coverage, but now that is illegal and not an option.
Currently London, one of the world’s largest cities, is covered by about 165 fire stations. Trying to replace that coverage with a mere 27 engines will be a task, to say the least.
UPDATE, 11:45 am Eastern:
The strike vote has passed with 79% of the FBU members approving a strike action. The FBU just issued this press release:
London firefighters today voted by 3482 to 943 to take strike action unless London Fire Brigade Commissioner Ron Dobson withdraws his letter of 11 August which began the legal process of sacking the capital’s 5557 uniformed and 41 non-operational firefighters. The majority was 79% and the turnout was 79%.Fire Brigades Union general secretary Matt Wrack said: “This is a huge vote for strike action. Firefighters hate going on strike – but they hate being bullied even more. This vote demonstrates that London firefighters will fight these mass sackings every step of the way. The London Fire Brigade now needs to lift the sacking notices and start negotiating properly. I hope that even at this late stage, Ron Dobson will do the sensible thing, so that we can get round a table with him and sort out our differences over shift patterns without a gun being held to our heads.”
Strike dates will not be announced today. “We are holding off announcing strike dates for 24 hours in order to give the London Fire Brigade a last chance to do the sensible thing and withdraw the letters of dismissal so we can return to negotiating on the question of shift patterns” says FBU executive member for London Ian Leahair.
If there is no word from the London Fire Brigade, the regional committee will meet with Matt Wrack on Friday to discuss setting dates for strikes.
London firefighters have been taking action short of a strike, including an overtime ban and a ban on “acting up”, since Friday 24 September.
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