Fire fighters from all over the country
staged a mass demonstration in Barnsley on Tuesday 28th September in
support of South Yorkshire fire-fighters, who are
protesting against an arbitrary change of shift patterns forced upon them by
ultimatum by their bosses, South Yorkshire Fire Authority. The authority have told the fire-fighters
that that they must accept a change of
shift patterns from 9 hour shifts to 12 hour shifts or else face compulsory
redundancy. This ultimatum threatens the jobs of 744 fire-fighters across South Yorkshire.
The demonstration by 2,500 fire-fighters
from all around the country made a colourful and noisy sight as they marched
through the town centre of Barnsley. The
marchers took time to stop outside the offices of the Fire Authority to voice
their anger and frustration at management tactics in attempting to force
through radical and fundamental changes to their contracts against the will of
their employees.
If
the fire-fighters do not or cannot work the shifts in those new contracts for
family, childcare or other reasons they have been warned that they will be
sacked without redundancy payments. This amounts to a blatant disregard of work
/ life balance good practice as well as being tantamount to blackmail against a
background of unemployment and recession. Local fire-fighter, Nigel Bailey told Socialist Appeal that he and his
wife are incensed that the his
bosses will not listen to any compromise
put forward by his union and that their
own family care arrangements will be badly affected by the imposition of the
new shift patterns. Jeremy Pagan of the
FBU said “the attacks on the conditions of service of fire-fighters amounts to
a cut in frontline services.” On the same evening Alistair Darling speaking from
the Labour Party conference told Jeremy Paxman on Newsnight “ We will protect frontline services from any
future cuts.”
The actions in Barnsley have been supported
by Doncaster fire-fighters who have voted to strike in response to the actions
of the South Yorkshire fire authority. This
dispute has the full backing of the FBU and is set to escalate unless the
bosses see sense and restore the hard fought conditions of service back to
normal.
