Three further strikes, each of an eight-day duration, are also planned to press the Fire Brigades Union’s (FBU) claim for an hourly take-home pay of £8.50, a 40 percent raise over what they currently receive for a 48-hour workweek (£1 = US$1.55).

The British government has responded to the workers’ fight by deploying 18,700 troops as strikebreakers--12,500 from the army, 3,000 from the navy and 3,200 from the air force. The more than 800 aging "Green Goddess" fire trucks available for use by the military have become a hated symbol of government intervention against the firefighters.

In Northern Ireland, 32 of these trucks have been painted yellow in an attempt to distinguish them from other motorized military equipment used by the occupying British army. This didn’t deter youths in Derry, however, from throwing petrol bombs and stones at police and soldiers using these "yellow goddesses," reported the Financial Times.

The Labour Party government launched a major slander campaign against the firefighters and their union. Prime Minister Anthony Blair, who denounced the strike as "deeply irresponsible" and "putting lives in danger," condemned the striking firefighters as "wreckers." He claimed that he would never concede to their demands, insisting that "no government on earth" would do so.

"If we say yes to 40 percent for fire-fighters, how could we, or any government, say no to a 40 percent claim for teachers, or nurses?" stated Blair.  
 
Spirited mass pickets
At the big Barking fire station in East London, the bulk of the 90 firefighters from all four shifts assembled in a spirited mass picket to mark the start of the strike action.

For weeks leading up to the walkout, Barking, like many other fire stations in the country, has been adorned with printed FBU banners and hand-painted signs urging support for the firefighters’ pay claim. As the hour for action approached, pickets, sporting T-shirts saying "I voted yes" for strike action, edged the two fire engines and a hose vehicle covered in Fire Brigade Union regalia out of the gates. A generator powered arc lights as night fell. When the walkout began, cascading fireworks were rocketed into the air while pickets cheered and blasted their noisy compressed air hooters.

Many passing cars, buses, and trucks on the busy A13 road out of London responded to picket signs asking them to hoot the horns as a show of support for the strikers.

A so-called independent review body set up by the government to examine the firefighters’ pay rates and working conditions drew the ire of a number of pickets. Headed by George Bain, the committee has released its interim findings.

The report proposes an immediate 4 percent raise followed by a further 7 percent in 12 months’ time, if workers accept major work-rule changes. These would include scheduling overtime on top of the current 48-hour workweek, and ending the current single-tier entry wage level.

"The Bain report is an insult both as regards to the wage offer and the strings," stated Dave Pamah, 37, a strike leader at Acton fire station in west London in a telephone interview. "We had been led to believe that a substantial increase was in the offing but Bain’s 11 percent over two years comes nowhere close. And the string will mean divisions between firefighters and cuts in jobs and service provisions. The feeling on the picket line is that unless the government breaks from Bain we’ll be in for a long dispute."

The union has said that Bain’s "modernization" proposals will take fire service provision "back to the 1950s."

"The Bain report hardened attitudes among firefighters," commented Garrett Brooks, an FBU member in north London. "We are to a man disgusted" said Jeff Statham, 53, an FBU member at the Dowgate fire station in the City of London. "This is a complete insult," added Alec Elwell, 30, also at Dowgate. "I don’t want to be stuck in a poverty trap."  
 
Government slanders
In a statement to the House of Commons, Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott blamed the FBU strike for "more deaths, more injuries and more distress." Prescott and other government officials have repeatedly warned the firefighters not to strike at a time of potential "terrorist" threats.

Speaking on BBC TV’s "Question Time" program, the Home Office minister, Charles Falconer, praised the strikebreaking efforts by officials of the Retained Firefighters Union, which organizes some 4,000 part-timers. However, a number of the retained firefighters--workers in other industries who are paid a retainer to leave their jobs to fight fires on a part-time basis when called to do so--are members of the FBU, and more have joined during the current wage fight.

The government’s antilabor campaign has been backed up by a media barrage of lies and slanders. "Fire Union Chiefs are Saddam’s stooges" headlined the November 14 daily Sun, which described FBU general secretary Andy Gilchrist as the "Wrecker in chief." An editorial in the November 13 London Times charged the FBU with putting "lives at risk in order to defend cosy restrictive practices and an absurd 40 percent pay claim."

The capitalist media tried to blame the FBU for deaths caused by fires that occurred during the 48-hour strike. Despite their best efforts, however, the media could not link a single one of these deaths to the labor dispute.

It’s Prime Minister Blair who "will have blood on his hands because he is putting the public at risk for a paltry pay increase for firefighters," stated FBU executive council member John McDonald at a 500-strong FBU rally in Edinburgh.

Gilchrist conducted a whistle stop tour of Scotland during the first strike day, addressing a spirited rally of 2,000 firefighters in Glasgow.

The tour highlighted the failure of the government’s and employers’ antistrike campaign to break the resolve of the firefighters. At the Tollcross fire station in Edinburgh, for example, workers on the picket line contrasted the government’s opposition to a 40 percent increase for firefighters with its support for a 40 percent increase for Members of Parliament.

"The government’s worried that nurses and other public sector workers will want the same as us," said one of the pickets who requested that his name not be used. "It shows that they’re low paid too."  
 
Unions support firefighters’ fight
Thousands of union members and other workers have rallied in support of the firefighters. "People have visited the picket lines, bringing along food and drink for the pickets and making financial donations to our hardship fund," reported Dave Pamah.

The Rail Maritime and Transport Union (RMT) announced that it would support any members exercising their legal right to refuse to work because of safety problems arising out of lack of fire cover. Some 22 deep stations in the London Underground were closed during the FBU strike as a result of such actions taken by more than 130 drivers. The prime minister’s office is urging the London Underground to take disciplinary action against employees who were absent during these days. In response, the RMT has decided to ballot for strike action to back up their demand that the employers guarantee they will not discipline workers for days missed during the strike.

The National Union of Fire Brigades in France has announced its full support for the FBU strike and confirmed that its members will not carry out work in the Channel Tunnel normally done by their UK counterparts during the strikes.

Meanwhile, airport staff, air traffic controllers, magistrates’ court workers, teachers, lecturers, and Royal Mail staff are considering strike action over their own wage claims, and pay talks between unions representing 5,000 workers at the car company Peugeot broke down last week. Through August of this year, 882,000 days have been lost as a result of strike action compared with 525,000 for the whole of 2001.  
 
New government threats
Worried over the impact of the firefighters’ strike, the government has issued new threats against the FBU in advance of the eight-day strike set to begin November 22. Officials have announced that they are considering whether to invoke special emergency powers to ensure that "essential services" continue. Police and civilian drivers may be ordered to cross the FBU picket lines and seize the regular fire engines, a small number of which will be used, in addition to the "green goddesses," as a demonstrative part of the strikebreaking operation by the armed forces. Some troops are currently being trained on 15 such fire engines.

The government has also indicated that it is considering seeking an injunction to ban future strike action by the FBU.

The leadership of the Conservative Party has urged the Labour Party government to take a tougher stance as Blair considers whether to order troops to cross the picket lines. Some in the army top brass, however, have cautioned against using troops as strikebreakers at a time when the government is preparing tens of thousands of troops to be part of an invasion force against Iraq.  
 
 
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