Firefighters in England and Wales have begun a further eight-day period of strikes, as the Westminster government refuses to improve its pension proposals.
The strikes began on Saturday 9 August, and will last until Saturday 16 August. They take place every day between 12 and 2pm, and again from 10.59 to 11.59pm.
The current pensions proposals in England and Wales are still unworkable, and mean that firefighters will still face dismissal simply because they cannot maintain the physical fitness requirements necessary until they are age 60. Concessions by devolved governments have been sufficient to avoid strike action in Scotland and Northern Ireland.
For months, the Westminster government is known to have considered and costed an improved position that would allow firefighters to retire with more flexibility from age 55, but this has not been offered.
The Westminster government appeared to have hardened its position further in the last week. New Fire Minister Penny Mordaunt wrote to union leaders on 6 August informing them that she considered the meeting scheduled to take place the following day to have “fallen”. This is the first time talks have been cancelled, and was followed with more aggressive media briefing against the Fire Brigades Union (FBU), describing its approach as “illogical”.
Yet it is the government that created an unworkable pensions scheme, and it is the government’s own research that has confirmed that working to 60 is beyond most firefighters. The only logic at Westminster is the “logic” of making public sector workers pay for the economic downturn that was created by the Tory bankers and their friends.
The strikes show that FBU members have a continued willingness to take action in defence of their pensions. The union is keeping up the momentum of action over the summer holidays, rather than going to sleep for months. The union’s leadership has said it is willing to carry on with action, unless the government breaks the log-jam.
Scotland
In a related development, the incumbent FBU regional secretary in Scotland John Duffy was hammered four to one in elections for the post.
Duffy is an active SNP member and strangely for a Scottish nationalist, the recipient of an OBE earlier this year. He is widely seen as committed to “social partnership” with the SNP government, and for cobbling together the deal that kept Scottish firefighters out of strike action since it began last September.
It is a good thing that FBU members in Scotland have decisively rejected Duffy’s approach.
Elections for the positions of Scottish chair, Scottish treasurer and EC member for Scotland are now imminent. Duffy’s defeat could turn out to be a forerunner of more incumbents being removed from office.
