After months and months of negotiations, bans, court appearances, a television advertising campaign and national media coverage of our dispute, a strike and two stop-work meetings we finally seem to be making progress in defending our conditions and wining an increase in wages. The Union has now met with the Department, the Premiers Office and representatives from Unions NSW on three of the last six working days.
While progress has been painfully slow the Department and indeed the Premiers Office have at last started to take our claim seriously. The previous hardline from the Department on our rosters, Operational Support jobs, training and promotional systems seems to have substantially weakened. We won’t actually know what the Department now wants to do to our Award until the close of business on Friday – the date by which it must provide evidence and affidavits in support of the 2.5%, 2.75% and 2.75% offer.
While all of this has been happening the Union has continued to roll out its political lobbying strategy and by the end of this week we will have arranged for over twenty delegations of rank and file firefighters to meet with local Members of Parliament. While most MPs have been broadly supportive of our ‘Community Safety _ Not For Sale’ campaign, some have been outspoken in their support for the states professional firefighters.
As late as this afternoon the Labor Party member for Bathurst Gerard Martin has announced in the media his strident support for our campaign. Gerard Martin has now made his views very clear to those running Government in that he will not sit back and allow the Department to cut firefighters wages or reduce services to fund an increase.
Gerard Martin may be the first of the twenty Labor Party MP’s we have approached to come out publicly and back our claims, but he will most certainly not be the last. The Union is now redoubling efforts to have the Department pull the most offensive and down right dangerous elements of its claim on our conditions. We will now be looking to have those MP’s still wavering on support for our claims get off the fence and publicly throw their support behind Gerard Martin and a fair go for firies.
Simon Flynn
State Secretary
After months and months of negotiations, bans, court appearances, a television advertising campaign and national media coverage of our dispute, a strike and two stop-work meetings we finally seem to be making progress in defending our conditions and wining an increase in wages. The Union has now met with the Department, the Premiers Office and representatives from Unions NSW on three of the last six working days.
While progress has been painfully slow the Department and indeed the Premiers Office have at last started to take our claim seriously. The previous hardline from the Department on our rosters, Operational Support jobs, training and promotional systems seems to have substantially weakened. We won’t actually know what the Department now wants to do to our Award until the close of business on Friday – the date by which it must provide evidence and affidavits in support of the 2.5%, 2.75% and 2.75% offer.
While all of this has been happening the Union has continued to roll out its political lobbying strategy and by the end of this week we will have arranged for over twenty delegations of rank and file firefighters to meet with local Members of Parliament. While most MPs have been broadly supportive of our ‘Community Safety _ Not For Sale’ campaign, some have been outspoken in their support for the states professional firefighters.
As late as this afternoon the Labor Party member for Bathurst Gerard Martin has announced in the media his strident support for our campaign. Gerard Martin has now made his views very clear to those running Government in that he will not sit back and allow the Department to cut firefighters wages or reduce services to fund an increase.
Gerard Martin may be the first of the twenty Labor Party MP’s we have approached to come out publicly and back our claims, but he will most certainly not be the last. The Union is now redoubling efforts to have the Department pull the most offensive and down right dangerous elements of its claim on our conditions. We will now be looking to have those MP’s still wavering on support for our claims get off the fence and publicly throw their support behind Gerard Martin and a fair go for firies.
