News

With the member for Bathurst Gerard Martin now publicly backing the Union’s campaign against cuts to our wages and conditions pressure has continued to mount on local MP’s to stand up for the professional firefighters of NSW. This week delegations of FBEU members have visited Graham West the member for Campbelltown, Verity Firth the member for Balmain, Michael Daley the member for Maroubra and Barbra Perry the member for Auburn.

Over 150 members have also rallied outside the electorate office of the Minister for Emergency Services Nathan Rees calling on him to directly intervene in the dispute and make the Department withdraw its attack on our hours of work, training and promotional systems and our Operational Support positions. The rally was enormously successful and drew in members from as far a field as Newcastle and Wollongong. Members in attendance at the rally have called for more direct action targeting MP’s and the Union is now putting together a plan to achieve just this.

Each of these politicians have been fronted by local media and asked to come out in support of our claim. Local newspapers across the state have been briefed up prior to delegations meeting MP’s and they have localized the Union’s campaign. The next stage of the political lobbying involves encouraging MPs to put their platitudes for the work of FBEU members into public statements and letters committing them to support us.

The latest politician to do so has been Noreen Hay the member for Wollongong. Noreen Hay has put together a media release locking herself in behind local Illawarra firefighters. Clearly following on from the very public support the FBEU has been offered by MP for Bathurst Gerard Martin – Noreen Hay has gone further and claimed that the proposals put forward by the Department are so extreme that the Government simply couldn’t have been aware of them.

The ‘Special Wage Case’ is now set to start in the Industrial Relations Commission on Monday August 25th. The case will run for eight consecutive days and finish on September 3rd. The Union will be encouraging members to attend every day the court sits and to hear exactly what the Department has to say about our claim and why our wages should be held down to 2.5%, 2.75% and 2.75% over three years.

At 4pm this afternoon the Union office was delivered a box of 1600 pages of evidence and affidavits that the Department has now filed in the IRC to substantiate its claims against our conditions. The Union’s officials will be spending most of the weekend reading through the Department’s counter claims and building our counter arguments. The Union’s State Committee will also be meeting early next week to consider how best to respond.

Simon Flynn

State Secretary

With the member for Bathurst Gerard Martin now publicly backing the Union’s campaign against cuts to our wages and conditions pressure has continued to mount on local MP’s to stand up for the professional firefighters of NSW. This week delegations of FBEU members have visited Graham West the member for Campbelltown, Verity Firth the member for Balmain, Michael Daley the member for Maroubra and Barbra Perry the member for Auburn.

Over 150 members have also rallied outside the electorate office of the Minister for Emergency Services Nathan Rees calling on him to directly intervene in the dispute and make the Department withdraw its attack on our hours of work, training and promotional systems and our Operational Support positions. The rally was enormously successful and drew in members from as far a field as Newcastle and Wollongong. Members in attendance at the rally have called for more direct action targeting MP’s and the Union is now putting together a plan to achieve just this.

Each of these politicians have been fronted by local media and asked to come out in support of our claim. Local newspapers across the state have been briefed up prior to delegations meeting MP’s and they have localized the Union’s campaign. The next stage of the political lobbying involves encouraging MPs to put their platitudes for the work of FBEU members into public statements and letters committing them to support us.

The latest politician to do so has been Noreen Hay the member for Wollongong. Noreen Hay has put together a media release locking herself in behind local Illawarra firefighters. Clearly following on from the very public support the FBEU has been offered by MP for Bathurst Gerard Martin – Noreen Hay has gone further and claimed that the proposals put forward by the Department are so extreme that the Government simply couldn’t have been aware of them.

The ‘Special Wage Case’ is now set to start in the Industrial Relations Commission on Monday August 25th. The case will run for eight consecutive days and finish on September 3rd. The Union will be encouraging members to attend every day the court sits and to hear exactly what the Department has to say about our claim and why our wages should be held down to 2.5%, 2.75% and 2.75% over three years.

At 4pm this afternoon the Union office was delivered a box of 1600 pages of evidence and affidavits that the Department has now filed in the IRC to substantiate its claims against our conditions. The Union’s officials will be spending most of the weekend reading through the Department’s counter claims and building our counter arguments. The Union’s State Committee will also be meeting early next week to consider how best to respond.

Simon Flynn

State Secretary