Firefighters may strike over ‘life and death’ issue

Date Published: 29-Nov-2012

BY FRANK FARRAGHER

STRIKE action will be considered by city firemen if a County Council cutback arrangement on part-time operatives comes into force this Saturday, the SIPTU union has warned.

Galway County Council are due to implement a new work regime from December 1 that would mean part-time or ‘retained’ firemen would only be ‘called in’ as back-up when their full time colleagues were more than five miles away from their Claddagh base.

Under the current arrangements, the ‘part timers’ are called in when their full-time colleagues are working outside a 2.5 mile radius from their work base – the new proposals are understood to be part of a cost-cutting package.

This week a SIPTU representative warned that for ‘a very small amount’ in savings, lives could end up being put at risk because of the proposed measure.

Anthony McCormack, SIPTU Assistant Organiser, told the Galway City Tribune, that where time was vital – such as in the case of water rescues – the availability of the retained (part-time) firemen in such emergencies could be the difference between life and death.

“We would really have to ask the question at this stage – what price is a life worth? The really strange thing about this whole issue, is that the funding is there and provided for, under the budget for emergency services,” said Mr. McCormack.

He said that there were very real and serious concerns – both among the firemen and the general public – that safety and, indeed, life and death, could be compromised, with the introduction of the new measures.

He warned, that the union and its members, were now considering the option of strike action over the coming weeks, if the Council declined to defer their new proposals.

For more on this story, see the Galway City Tribune.