Picket line 'will be solid'

Uckfield firefighters are set to join colleagues from around the country in strike action starting on Tuesday at 9am.

The strike will last 48 hours and for the whole of that time they plan to man a picket line at the fire station in Bellfarm Road.

Five further stages of action are planned. A second 48-hour strike is due to start at 9am on Saturday, November 2, and then the strike is due to escalate to eight-day stretches starting on November 6, November 22, December 4 and December 16.

A spokesman for Uckfield firefighters, Fireman Andy Bell, said that during strike periods they would not be reporting for work and an official Fire Brigades Union picket line would be maintained at the station.

He said 95 per cent of full-time firefighters in the town were members of the union, as were 60 per cent of retained part-time firefighters, and non-members were supportive of the action. 'They will not attempt to cross the picket line and enter the station,' said Mr Bell.

During the strike all calls to the fire service control room would be re-routed to the Sussex Police headquarters and be handled by a military controller.

Mr Bell said ground normally covered by Uckfield firefighters would be handled by Army Green Goddesses manned by Royal Navy personnel possibly based at Crowborough army camp.

'Everybody hoped it wouldn't come to this. Nobody wants to withdraw their labour. The last thing we want to do is put people's lives at risk but as has been said by our executive council we don't see why emotional blackmail about people's safety should force us to keep accepting low pay,' said Mr Bell.

He said the worth of firefighters' pay had been whittled away over the years in comparison with other groups of workers and they were no longer considered semi-skilled manual workers. Their jobs were now more technical and one report had aligned their skills with associate professional and technical workers whose average pay was the 30,000 firefighters were now seeking.

'The 21,500 we are getting now is not a great deal of money. A lot of us have to do second jobs and if your wife doesn't work and you have children you are eligible for working families tax credit and we think that is wrong. This is a professional job and we shouldn't have to rely on state handouts,' said Mr Bell.