SIPTU Retained Fire Fighters to escalate strike action

RETAINED firefighters who are members of the trade union, SIPTU will escalate their strike action due to the failure of government to respond to their legitimate concerns. 

It has been a total of nine weeks since this industrial action has commenced and no agreement has been reached between retained fire services and the government. 

The National Retained Fire Fighter Committee agreed that SIPTU would inform the management that, as of 8.00 a.m. on Saturday, August 12, all stations will go dark and will have no internal communications other than life saving information. 

This 'all dark' initiative is the first in the proposed hope that management will go back to the table on Saturday, August 19.

If no changes are made an additional one station will close each week in each county. 

Speaking about the escalated strike action by retained firefighters SIPTU Public Administration and Community Division Organiser, Karan O Loughlin said "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.”