Fire Brigades Union:

Today the Government instructed the London Labour Party to wreck the Fire Service pay deal reached last week.

7 Additional Councillors turned up at the meeting breaking its constitution. None of these London councillors had ever sat on a fire authority and were acting directly on Labour Party instructions.

The employers were to vote 10-6 and ratify their position stated last week to end the Fire Service Dispute. The newly arrived Labour Party members, all from London, switched the vote to make it 13-10 against acceptance thus wrecking the deal on orders from Whitehall and Westminster.

So many councillors turned up that most did not know each other and one asked ‘who are they?’ as he didn’t even know he was to meet the FBU as he had simply been instructed to attend the meeting without a proper briefing.

During an adjournment in the talks the FBU returned to the meeting room only to be informed that the employers had walked out following questioning of their motives, actions and instructions by the FBU assistant general secretary Mike Fordham.

In 113 hours of face to face talks in the last few weeks a deal was reached and agreed by the employers.

FBU Assistant General Secretary Mike Fordham said: “I am stunned and angry. We had 14 days of detailed daily talks and reached agreements which the union honoured this morning.

“A clear agreement was reached. A Government inspired wrecking crew from London has been sent in to destroy this deal and they have done it.

Nick Raynsford bullied the London Councillors by threatening to withdraw the £30 million transitional funding if a deal was reached and he then left the Country thus making himself unavailable for comment along with Val Shawcross, also of London who supported his attempts to wreck the deal last week.

Dean Mills, Executive Member of the FBU and a Firefighter said “I sat in 113 hours of talks as one of the FBU negotiators. We reach agreement on each and every single issue the employers had. We had that agreement and now the London Labour party have done as they were instructed by Nick Raysnford.

They have wrecked the agreement. It is amazing that one single Fire Brigade has dictated national policy and forced their position on 57 other Brigades by turning up as a mob to alter the voting. It’s a total and utter disgrace.”

***ENDS***

For further information contact

Dean Mills, mob 07956 502585, Regional Office on 01494 513034, email:deanmills@hotmail.com