23 Oct 2010

Support the Fire fighters today!

The Green Party is strongly supporting the Fire Brigades Union, Tory cuts will kill!

The London FBU go on strike today until 6pm.

PLEASE SUPPORT THEM. Go along to your local fire station picket line and give them your support.

The administration is hell-bent on wrecking the union to make way for the introduction of practices that will put us all in danger.

FBU press release:
LONDON FIREFIGHTERS' STRIKE TO GO AHEAD AFTER FIRE BRIGADE REFUSES TO WITHDRAW SACKING LETTERS

London's 5,600 firefighters will go on strike at 10 a.m. tomorrow (Saturday)
morning, and will stay out until 6 p.m., after the London Fire Brigade sent
them all letters of dismissal on 11 August.

"It is a terrible step to have to take" says Fire Brigades Union general
secretary Matt Wrack, who will join the walkout at Euston fire station.
"But London's firefighters feel it is the only step they can now take."

They are taking the action because, on 11 August, the London Fire Brigade
formally began the legal process of terminating the employment contracts of
5,600 London firefighters.

"If they had not started that process, we would not be going on strike. If
the dismissals are lifted now, the strike will be called off straight away"
said Mr Wrack.

He added: ""People say to me: it can't be that simple. But it is.
Firefighters hate going on strike, but they hate being bullied even more.
The London Fire Brigade is trying to bully them, and they won't have it.
That's why there was a 79 per cent majority in our ballot for a strike, on a
79 per cent turnout; a huge mandate by any standards."

The London Fire Brigade was acting under section 188 of the Trade Union and
Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992. If, 90 days after it sent out
the letters, the firefighters have not reached an agreement which is
satisfactory to the employer, the London Fire Brigade has placed itself in a
position where it may legally sack all of London's 5,600 firefighters and
offer them re-employment on a unilaterally imposed contract.

"It is a process which is designed to avoid having to negotiate a
settlement" said Mr Wrack. "Why negotiate when you can sack everyone and
impose new contracts?"

Matt Wrack will lead the walkout at Euston fire station on Euston Road at 10
a.m. tomorrow. It is the first of two days' planned strike action; the
second is on November 1.

London firefighters have been taking industrial action short of a strike
over the mass sackings threat, including a ban on overtime and "acting up",
since September 24.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I absoultely support the firefighters. I understand that if they sign the new proposed contracts- they can be sacked after 2 years without redundancy pay - and that's even if they have been working for the service for 18years!! It's an absoultely discusting way to treat people who put their lives on the line!! Equally discusting is the lies and incorrect reporing in some areas of the media. Also, Boris Johnson should be ashamed of himself. BRING BACK KEN.!!!!

Imperialism Is the Arsonist: Marxism’s Contribution to Ecological Literatures and Struggles

Derek Wall ’s article entitled  Imperialism Is the Arsonist: Marxism’s Contribution to Ecological Literatures and Struggles , argues that Ma...