 |
||
 |
||
| pay campaign 2002 | ||
| To: ALL MEMBERS SOUTHERN
REGION From: DEAN MILLS MEMBERS UPDATE:13th NOVEMBER 2002 Tonight I walked out of my station after my day shift ended. We had our shelter set up and our brazier going. (nice use of petrol Steve!). I did not want to walk out and strike. But, left with the choice of being used as a doormat by the Government or standing up for a fair rate of pay, I chose not to be a door mat. After a couple of hours at my station I visited Branches in Bucks, Berkshire, Hampshire and Oxfordshire. Isle of Wight and Dorset Ill get to you too! There was no difference across the region, nor indeed across the country. From Langley to Slade, Rewley Road to Basingstoke, Gerrards Cross to Newbury, Slough to Didcott. The response from members and from the public was the same. Support and a determination to win even while wishing we had not been forced into this position. Over the next two days we will visit more branches and we have a Regional Committee Meeting on Friday. We have seen people donate very large sums of money. Very large! Clearly we have the support from the public we serve if not the press at present who are fixated on 40% and seem incapable of grasping more than the most basic of facts, and on what pictures hang where. Congratulations to all members in the Region for your solidarity, determination and belief in what we are doing is not only right but that we are asking for nothing more than a fair rate of pay. £8:50 is NOT greed. If this Government wanted a modern fire service they should have implemented the Fire Cover Review. Their view of modern practices for the Public Sector has seen the same newspapers who say we should modernise, print page after page of people lying on hospital trolleys because the hospitals ‘modernised’ by this government do not function properly. So much for their vision. The same government whose ‘modernisation’ for schools has led to PFI builds not working and schools where the roofs blow off in the wind! Is this ‘modernisation’ the Government really want? The Government Inquiry which Bain sat on after getting his knighthood is a shame. He was advised by a Government established on spin, supported by questionable donations, and held together by bully boy tactics. Bully’s never win in the long term. Left Hook Prescott may like to think he can throw his considerable weight around and frighten people. But in the end any bully will get what they are due in full. I did not want to go on strike tonight. But I was heartened by our members, and made more resolute by the nonsense and spin this Government has spouted tonight in the media. We face a long hard battle. Nothing worth having ever came easy. We are not doormats. Dean Mills
|
||||