‘United’ firefighters to stage demonstration at Market Square
Dispute referred to WRC
Retained firefighters attached to all of the county's 10 fire stations will take to Cavan’s market square this Friday (August 18) in protest for better pay and working conditions as their strike enters its 10th week.
The news comes as it has been confirmed this afternoon that the firefighters' case has been referred to the Work Relations Commission (WRC) for a hearing tomorrow (Wednesday).
Commencing at 8:30am, they will begin their demonstration in the Market Square before making their way to the Fianna Fáil office on Church Street, and then the Fine Gael headquarters at Abbeylands, demonstrating for around 30 minutes outside each. The strike is expected to finish at around 2pm back at the Market Square.
Retained firefighters have ramped up their strike action after what they say is a failure on the part of government to respond to their legitimate concerns, though all parties are headed back to the negotiating table today (Wednesday).
Rolling strikes continue at fire stations, with just half of fire stations open at any one time and further closures planned in the coming weeks if a resolution is not found.
SIPTU community division organiser, Karan O'Loughlin, said: "The men and women of the retained service are steadfast in their belief that the service will collapse if adequate measures are not taken to address the current recruitment and retention crisis and this dispute will continue until this happens."
All stations went "dark" as of 8am last Saturday, August 12, following a decision by The National Retained Fire Fighter Committee.
This means they will have no internal communications other than life saving information.
They are warning that, if a resolution is not found, then from this Saturday, August 19, an additional one station will close each week in each county.
"Stations around the country are already closed fifty per cent of the time because of the refusal by management to agree adequate cover arrangements with fire fighters, and because many of them don’t have enough staff to respond to calls. This situation will now escalate,” warned Ms O'Loughlin.
Joint SIPTU representative for County Cavan, Cian Donohoe, explained that the protests will to go ahead unless they receive “a miracle offer" between now and then.
He previously described the Labour Court recommendation as "an insult".
The offer included a 24.1%-32.7% increase on salary, which Mr Donohoe claimed amounted to around a 23-cent increase per hour on the current rate of 99c.
Mr Donohoe explained that, from this Saturday, 60% of stations will be closed in County Cavan at any one time.
“The following week it will go to seventy [per cent] and so forth until they actually step in and do something about it,” Mr Donohoe warned.
Talks
On Monday evening, a letter issued by Minister for Local Government Daragh O’Brien invited SIPTU back into talks at the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) “to stop it [industrial action] escalating”. The SIPTU National Negotiation Committee have agreed to go back to the negotiating table, with talks due to get underway at around noon tomorrow (Wednesday).
On the ground, Mr Donohoe said retained fire fighters are feeling “more united".
“They’re in it for the long haul,” he insisted.
“The longer it goes on, they can realise management and government aren’t showing any consideration to us.
“They don’t seem to be actively looking to solve this.”