Firefighters were among protesters in Port Macquarie and Kempsey last Thursday, fighting against the NSW Government’s new industrial relations laws.
Local health workers were also on site for the public rally, supported by police, prison officers and other public sector workers.
Members of the Fire Brigade Employees’ Union, in full uniform, took part “to fight Premier Barry O’Farrell’s anti-worker IR laws that were pushed through parliament
last month”.
Firefighters believe the laws attack the rights of emergency services personnel and force wage rises below increases to the cost of living.
FBEU State Secretary Jim Casey said, “Current award conditions covering training, safety, wages or conditions can now be struck out at the stroke of a Ministerial pen, with firefighters forced to agree to reduced staffing numbers or conditions if they want pay rises that match the cost of living increases.
“The O’Farrell Government is offering firefighters a choice between seeing our wages go backwards, or selling off jobs to fund pay rises. We won’t see our wages go backwards, but having less firefighters on the road puts the community, and those firefighters who are responding, at greater risk.”
Protest organiser Paul Doughty said Port Macquarie MP Leslie Williams — who has worked as both a nurse and as a teacher — had turned her back on her old colleagues.
“We’ve been left with no choice but to resume our protest because Leslie Williams refuses to act on the legitimate concerns of nurses, teachers, firefighters, prison officers and other public sector workers in her electorate,” Mr Doughty said.
“We’re going to continue this campaign of awareness and activism because these cuts to rights and entitlements affect everyone.”
