Gilchrist: enough is enough

The government is failing to invest in firefighters' wages and essential post-September 11 safety measures, union chief Andy Gilchrist has warned.

Firefighters are "simply not prepared" to accept existing pay levels any more, the head of the Fire Brigades Union told a Labour conference fringe meeting last night.

Describing the current dispute as a "testing time" for firefighters, Gilchrist said he was also proud of the union's hardline stance on its demand for a £30,000 wage.

"I've got to say it has been the most fabulous time of my 22 years in the Fire Brigades Unions," he told a Socialist Campaign Group meeting.

"It's the first time in a long time that we've decided what the timetable is and what the agenda is."

He said it was not acceptable for firefighters to receive a salary of £21,500 before deductions.

"That is simply unrealistic, unreasonable and more importantly we are not having it any more," added Gilchrist.

He blamed the government for putting the "negotiating thumbscrews" on local council employers.

The fire union chief said that ministers did not want a united front of unions and councils both approaching the Treasury for extra funding to pay higher wages.

The Labour MP for Hornchurch, John Cryer, took a different view, telling the same meeting that local authority employers could be pushing for a dispute.

"Some of the local authorities and the local fire authorities have been looking for an argument with the FBU for years," he said.

"I am absolutely convinced that two or three years ago a number of those local authorities were actually lobbying the Home Office to get something put on the statute book which would make all strikes on emergency services in the public services illegal," Cryer added.

"Some of the employers have been cruising for a fight for a long time and no it looks as if its actually going to happen."

Gilchrist said an Ernst and Young report had shown that the £450 million cost of raising fire fighter wages to £30,000 could be made "self-funding" by reforms the unions was prepared to sign up to.

"This is not some badly thought-out, ill-founded, lunatic left fringe campaign. This is a membership-led campaign," he said. "Firefighters are saying enough's enough."

"We are simply fed up with being pulled to one side at a training centre and photographed with a member of parliament of local councillor and being told how incredibly heroic and fantastic we are, and then at the end of that shift people have problems providing their kids with school uniforms and making ends meet."

The FBU chief also warned that the government was failing to take the necessary measures to protect the public from a September 11-style tragedy.

Gilchrist said the cost of ensuring proper training and equipment to deal with a terror attack on the scale of that in New York, should one occur in the UK, had been costed at £280 million.

"Not one single penny of that money has been forthcoming from the government to date," he said.

"I say this quite openly now, this country, this country's fire service, is no better prepared to deal with such an outrage than it was just over 12 months ago."