“Resolve is very strong” as Donegal firefighters resume strike action

Firefighters have escalated their strike action after an interim solution recommended by the Labour Court was rejected.

The escalated action began on Wednesday.

SIPTU representative for Donegal firefighters Kevin McKinney told the Donegal Democrat: “This is not easy for our guys, this is not where they want to be. But management has left us with no choice.”

Fire stations have been provided with a list of ‘threat to life’ situations to which they must respond. 

Mr McKinney said: “Normally in a threat to life situation, there would be three tenders. We have been told to only send two.

“The local authority - Donegal County Council in our case - is supposed to have a contingency plan in place for our strike action. They don’t. They have not met their legal obligation to do so.

“It is very difficult in a threat to life situation to be trying to provide cover when management will not put a contingency plan in place.”

The SIPTU rep did not hold back in his criticism of Donegal County Council for not stepping up and challenging the Local Government Management Agency (LGMA).

“Excuse my French, but they need to grow a pair and stop hiding behind the LGMA,” he said. 

“They are trying to break our strike action with these tactics. But we have had enough. This is not where anyone wants to be, but we have been talking for the last five or six years and it has got us nowhere.

“The Coyne Report says that the fire service is not fit for purpose. We need a rank and file system and we need to be able to recruit more people to the service. There are people leaving, there are people due to retire. What will happen then?”

Mr McKinney said it was suggested that members would be remunerated with an additional €5,000 per year. 

“With 24/7 year-round cover, that works out at about €100 per week, or an extra 50c per hour on top of the 90c so in reality, you are talking about €1.40 per hour to be on call all the time,” he said.

“That is just not acceptable. If this is not resolved we could end up with mass resignations.

“Our people are really together on this. Resolve is very strong. They know that if this doesn’t work, the service will die, and where will that leave our communities?”

Last week, SIPTU firefighters across the country voted by an overwhelming majority of 82% to 18% to reject the Labour Court recommendation which was proposed as ‘an interim solution’ to their dispute.

Retained firefighters are asking for a better work-life balance and for a better pay structure.

The starting rate for a retained firefighter is €8,500 which could rise to €10,500 in five years.

Some stations get very few calls, but they still have to be on-call 24/7 and ready to respond in the middle of the night. There is no structured time off and no structured pay.

The demands of the fire fighters’ are simple - a rank and file service that is fit for purpose.