08.02.1996

Fire fighters ballot for more strikes

In brief

The Fire Brigades Union executive has authorised strike ballots for London, Essex, Surrey and Tyne and Wear. These brigades are faced with massive job losses due to underfunding in the coming financial year.

Meanwhile Merseyside FBU representatives have returned to talks at Acas. The talks broke down last week when budget figures were released by Merseyside Fire Authority. A leaked report showed an expected surplus of £1,999 million for the financial year. The chief officer, backed by the Labour fire authority, had claimed that the brigade would be in deficit without the cuts in jobs and annual leave. This was shown to be false.

The fire authority and chief officer are hiding behind the excuse that central government is to blame for the financial crisis. But the immediate cause of the dispute has been a financial crisis manufactured by deliberate manipulation of the 1995/6 budget.

The claim made by Labour councillor, Bill Craig, that it wants to break the FBU is chillingly backed up by the revelations. If the authority does not now climb down firefighters will take heart from the figures, which show a net cost after saving on wages of £800 per hour. This means the strikes will cost the authority by March the £750,000 that the cut in jobs was set to save.

Chris Jones