UK Fire Bigades Union rejects new Pay Offer

[martinm]

Looks like we may be heading twoards another series of strikes.This was on todays news and was the first time I would imagine that most of us UK F/F's knew of the breakdown.

Firefighters reject final 16% pay offer

Firefighters' leaders have rejected a final pay offer of 16%, raising the threat of a fresh wave of strikes.

Local authority employers says the "exceptional offer" would increase the pay of firefighters from the present £21,500 to £25,000 within the next 16 months, which was more than any other public sector workers would receive.

Fire authorities made it clear that the offer, tabled during six hours of talks at the conciliation service Acas, went to the "absolute limits" of what they could afford and would need £30 million of transitional Government funding.

But the executive of the Fire Brigades Union decided tonight to recommend rejection of the offer and to seek an urgent meeting with Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott to try to resolve the crisis.

General secretary Andy Gilchrist said: "The employers' proposals raised the threat of casualisation of the fire service."



Story filed: 20:45:00 Thursday 6 March 2003

[protomkv]

Martin.
Do you know why the FBU decided to reject the 16%, I am sure there must have been a good reason

[Sub16Green]

Yeah...Nice on paper...

Read www.30kfirepay.co.uk

Not happy

Sub16

[Firebraun]

I'm one of probably a whole lot of U.S. firefighters who didn't realize just how LOW the pay our British brothers are getting for doing this job. I got curious as to the actual dollar amounts they're fighting over, so I ran the numbers through an online currency calculator and here are the U.S. dollar amounts they're they're talking about. It put it into perspective for me.

All the information I've seen on this subject says that our British brothers currently make 21,500 British Pounds per year. In U.S. Dollars that translates to: $34,552.70.

The offer that the fire authorities (employer) made them, which they turned down, is 25,000 British Pounds per year, (gradually increased to that amount over 16 months, not an immediate raise.) That amount in U.S. Dollars is: $40,322.50

What they are fighting and holding out for is 30,000 British Pounds per year, which translates in U.S. Dollars to: $48,387.00

I don't know about anyone else, but that sure sounds reasonable enough to me. Don't want to start the "We make more than you" thing here, but I'd bet that a lot of career US departments start their rookies at more than 34k per year. And 48k sure doesn't seem outrageous to me. What do LAFD or Chicago or Phoenix pay? I'll bet it's in the 50k per year ballpark.

Sounds like it's worth the fight. Hang in there brothers!

[martinm]

In a nutshell, the offer made by employers is based around a pay deal of 16% over 3 years, evaluation of firefighters and control staff's current jobs and skills and an agreement that management determine the duty systems to be applied at each location within a fire brigade area and be allowed to determine the working hours and deployment of employees.

Basically, the whole thing has broken down due to the clause about local management having the power to say when and where a firefighter will work. In case anyone was'nt aware, the standard duty system of 2days/2nights/4 days off is worked in all brigdes in the country. The FBU does not agree with its members being told that they may be required to work longer hours than as of now and the fact that staff may be required to travel long distances from their home to a fire station in order to keep up staffing levels etc. (For example, my brigade area is almost 70 miles from top to bottom. I would'nt like to have a 120 mile round trip from my home station to the furthesmost station in the county). This may be the kind of thing we would be faced with if the membership agreed to the current proposal.

There are other issues, but this in the main is the one. All other information can be found at www.fbu.org.uk.

[CJMinick390]

Sounds like management wants to paint the FBU as greedy and only wants to talk about money while at the same time they are eroding working conditions significantly as a trade for money. Not a good deal in my estimation.

[martinm]

CJ, that about sums it up...

Oh, I forgot to mention, the Govt took out an injunction against the FBU, so the union can't give interviews in the press and tell them our side of the subject...democracy??

[CJMinick390]

They can't close down your website, can they? Can you pay for media advertizing directing citizens to that site?

[stillPSFB]

Originally posted by martinm
Oh, I forgot to mention, the Govt took out an injunction against the FBU, so the union can't give interviews in the press and tell them our side of the subject...democracy??

Yer kiddin aren't you? How the heck can they do that? I hope the FBU get the courts to lift this injuction pretty quick - they can't gag free speech