“If you think I am angry, you are right” thundered Premier Barry O’Farrell yesterday. Unfortunately for O’Farrell and his Government, the hundreds of striking firefighters with their appliances outside were proof that he was not alone.
Ordinarily, bills of this sort of complexity are tabled for several weeks to allow the Opposition and others the opportunity to properly review them but this rotten Government, knowing just how crook its reforms really were, rammed them through within two short days. The Government set the timetable, not us. If O’Farrell hadn’t tried to ram through these reforms overnight, we would have been able to meet with them and work through the issues without the need to strike.
O’Farrell also slammed yesterday’s strike as “one of the most irresponsible actions I have ever heard of by a public sector union in the history of this State” – a big call by any measure. What the Premier did not know was that it would soon become one of the more successful actions by a public sector union when, at 0230 hours this morning, Parliament voted to exclude firefighters and paramedics from the reforms.
The Union welcomes Parliament’s decision to exempt us from these savage new laws, but insists they must still be scrapped for all workers. The FBEU will continue to wholeheartedly back Unions NSW, other affiliates and the broader labour movement in the ongoing campaign to defend sick and injured workers in this state.
It was also widely misreported that we have been ordered not to strike for the next three months and further, that the Union’s officials have agreed to this. The somewhat different truth is that the IRC yesterday made an Award which requires that if we do strike again within the next three months, that skeleton staffing is to be provided.
The decision to strike without skeleton crews was a difficult one. The State Committee did not recommend it, nor the members vote to support it, lightly. But our decision was vindicated by the result.
My congratulations again to all members, and particularly to the hundreds of members who stopped work yesterday. Make no mistake, the media attention that your action generated fueled the political pressure that followed. Every firefighter who, from this day on, suffers a workplace injury (a regrettably inevitable fact of life in our profession) is now in your debt. The Union’s Fighting Fund will again provide financial relief for striking members whose pays are docked. Further details to follow.
While we can be rightly proud as a Union that through strong action we have been able to successfully defend our existing workers compensation rights, members should remain mindful that further attacks are coming. The O’Farrell Government is busy shifting the wealth of the State from those who work for a living to the top end of town. That’s why they’ve attacked workers comp, why they’ve slashed our budget and why they’re slashing wages. We’ve won this round only.
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