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| pay campaign 2002 | ||
| To: ALL MEMBERS SOUTHERN
REGION From: DEAN MILLS MEMBERS UPDATE: 21st DECEMBER 2002 Well there has been a long silence from all side of late. This is not what I had hoped to happen for members nor is it safe to assume that silence is golden. John Prescott has announced he intends to scrap the section 19 process. At present if a Brigade wishes to close a station, get rid of appliances or crews they have to go through a process to ensure it is safe to do so. To date changes to stations and appliances (read cut for the most part) have been resisted by the FBU and local people. Now the Government want to simply do away with any resistance at all and force through their cuts. This Government is the most dictatorial, undemocratic, and unaccountable since the formation of the Labour Party. They act and swagger around like bullies. They sweep away any voice which opposes them because Tony Blair has never had to face any resistance in his time in Parliament and he doesn’t know how to handle it. He led a party well under reform and took over from the work Neil Kinnock and John Smith had begun. They started the reform and took the flack for the changes to the Labour Party, and Blair came on what he believes is a crest of a wave and that he can now walk on water. He Can’t. He believes that it is acceptable to close Fire Stations as fast as he buys property. He has no idea what working people do day-in and day-out to make ends meet. He lives in a world of make believe and fantasy. He believes a fire service will be more efficient if it has stations closed. On that warped logic we should close every one and be really efficient! He believes it fair to deny local people a say in how the fire service protects them. He is wrong. Local people vote, and his astounding arrogance will not be forgotten. He believes that any voice which speaks out against him is wrong. He displays a total lack of comprehension of what the word democracy is or indeed how a democratic society operates. We have seen the Bain review, so called independent and so stupid in its presentation of so called facts that it even uses the employers own photographs of hose on its cover; cobble together a report in a few weeks. It states that it is a better report than the pathfinder/fire cover review, and that the pathfinder report which took 3 years is flawed. Arrogance it seems is not simply a virtue of Mr Blair. The facts are plain for all to see. Mr Prescott and Mr Blair wanted the Pathfinder report shelved because it showed quite rightly that we need MORE firefighters and Fire Stations. They didn’t like that fact because it meant that regardless of what people need to protect them there would be more members in the FBU which they see as the main voice speaking out against them. Blair and Prescott are bullies. Thugs. Like the characters of ‘The Management’ in a comedy sketch by Hale and Pace they dress in sharp suites but have the instinct of a bully at heart. They know they cannot win any argument on the safety of the public when arguing with the Fire Service and the FBU so they simply provoke an un-needed full scale strike so they get a fight to demonstrate they are tough on unions. If there was any doubt at all that this was a fight FOR the fire service not simply pay then there can be no shadow of a doubt now. However to stay updated members MUST have a full and comprehensive report from the talks at ACAS. We must have a meeting to explain to Brigades why we are in the situation we are in at present and what the likely outcomes are. Members are willing to carry on striking indefinitely of that there is no doubt at all but they must have clear objectives, strong leadership, and support from both other unions and the public. Thankfully each of these is easy to demonstrate and show. But there cannot be the continued silence which is deafening. Mr Raynsford knows less about the fire service and what we actually do than any qualified firefighter. MP’s know less about what we actually do and what we carry on appliances than do the public. It’s high time MP’s visited their stations in their constituencies and see not only what we do at incidents but what we do day in day out on our stations. In this the Christmas Week there will be messages from CFO’s, Fire Authorities and Ministers saying how well we do, how professional we are, and what a good service we provide. I couldn’t care less what they say if they do not support their words with actions to support the Service not cut it. A typical hot air response from Raynsford was seen this week in the Commons: David Taylor (Lab, North-West Leicestershire): I welcome my right hon. Friend's appreciation of the value of retained firefighters. However, is it not the case that there are at least 3,000 to 4,000 fewer retained firefighters than are needed to maintain an adequate response time in rural and urban areas? The retained fee works out after tax at about 15p per hour. Should there not be a national recruitment campaign? Do not retained firefighters need more than just warm words? Mr. Raynsford: Retained firefighters represent just under a third of the total force of firefighters in the country. We wholly share my hon. Friend's concern to ensure more effective recruitment of retained firefighters. We are already engaged in the preparation of publicity material to assist in that process, and we are looking closely at the trials that have been conducted in areas such as south Wales to improve the recruitment of retained firefighters. I assure my hon. Friend and the House that we are very well seized of the importance of helping to recruit more retained firefighters, who do such a crucial job in many parts of the country. The classic avoidance of a question by Raynsford. However he faired rather worse when questioned by Jon Snow on channel 4. He was shown up for the ill advised, poorly briefed, squirming politician he is. We have copies of the Government ‘Bain’ report and the pathfinder report. The so called ‘volume two’ was only concocted when the Government didn’t like what the 11 Brigades said to them. In fact there were 12 Brigades in the pathfinder trail. One, Buckinghamshire, pulled out because the Government refused to supply any funding for the work to do it. Yet they say they are committed to the Fire Service! As Mr Blair sits at one of his homes this Christmas looking forward to 2003 what has he to consider? How many to kill on the streets of Iraq while trying to get rid of one person; Which of his houses to stay in now he has two more to use each weekend, and how to remove any obstacle in his way to becoming a president in all but name. This Government does not represent the views of the majority of ordinary working people any more than the Thatcher administration did. Indeed Blair seemed to bask in the reflected ‘glory’ of being compared to her in what is supposed to be a newspaper. Mr Blair now has the press via Rupert Murdoch and the Mail in one pocket and a cabinet of yes men (and it continues to be largely men) in the other. Pockets are though, a comfortable place for Blair, after all he sits quite contentedly in George Bushes. Perhaps this Christmas Mr Bush will get a bumper box of pretzels and Mr Prescott an alarm clock. Then the chance of war would reduce and the chance of sustained meaningful negotiations increase. As for the future for Firefighters and Control Staff we will not hesitate to again defend our claim for fair pay. We will not allow this government or any other to drive through their cuts. Someone has to stand up to bullies. There must be a meeting in the New Year to exchange ideas, concerns and tactics, but more importantly there must be an early opportunity to ensure members have their say and their views aired. It may be we face further and more frequent obstacles in our fight. Lord Goldsmith this week stated when questioned in a round about way on our right to strike: “It is my duty to keep under constant review the question whether to exercise this power. In order to determine where the public interest lies I may consult, as I have been doing, with my ministerial colleagues to ensure that I am properly informed as to the public interest consultations arising. I have been informed also of the views of fire authority representatives in relation to the potential threat to public safety. But the power to apply for an injunction is one for me as the Attorney-General to exercise in the public interest and the decision is for me alone.” I hope Lord Goldsmith is a man of his word and that he makes his decision alone. To be bullied by any other person whether a minister of the crown or otherwise would be the final nail in the coffin rapidly enveloping ‘New’ Labour. Dean Mills
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