Firefighters mount a week of daily strikes

The Fire Brigades Union has decided to escalate industrial action, saying that the current proposals on pensions and later retirement age were “unacceptable, unworkable and unrealistic”.

Strikes will take place from July 14-21, in two-hour blocks mostly between 6am-8am and 5pm-7pm.

The Fire Brigades Union has been in negotiations with the Government for three years in an attempt to avoid the implementation of proposals that they say would see firefighters paying more, working longer and receiving less.

Matt Wrack, FBU general secretary, said: “The Government must realise that firefighters cannot accept proposals that would have such devastating consequences for their futures, their families’ futures - and the future of the fire and rescue service itself.

“We have tried every route available to us to make the Government see sense over their attacks.

“Three years of negotiations have come to nothing because the Government is simply unwilling to compromise or even listen to reason despite a huge amount of evidence showing their planned scheme is unworkable.

“Shorter strike periods have illustrated the strength of feeling amongst firefighters whilst limiting disruption to the fire service, the public and our members’ working lives.

“But the Government is merely ploughing ahead, forcing firefighters to react.”

FBU members in Wales and England will join the huge strike by over a million public sector workers next Thursday.

The firefighters have taken strike action over the past year but the dispute remains deadlocked.