Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / NT United Workers Secretary Erina Early says fire fighters are meeting today to firm up their next steps in the fight for a pay rise
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Oh, the Northern Territory Firefighter Union, they're calling a mass
- 0:03Speaker 1: firefighter member meeting for today, which will be nine hundred
- 0:08Speaker 1: and thirty four days since workers have not had a
- 0:11Speaker 1: pay increase. The Northern Territory United Workers' Union secretary Erina
- 0:15Speaker 1: Early says the meeting will give members the chance to
- 0:18Speaker 1: discuss what actions they're going to take next. She joins
- 0:22Speaker 1: me on the line right now, Good morning to you, Erina.
- 0:25Speaker 2: Morning Katie.
- 0:27Speaker 1: Now, Erina, tell me what is the sentiment at the
- 0:30Speaker 1: moment of the firies.
- 0:33Speaker 2: Well, they're pretty disappointed how they're being treated by the government, Katie.
- 0:37Speaker 2: They're basically like the last on the pile of the
- 0:40Speaker 2: enterprise agreements. Most of them are now in coming to
- 0:44Speaker 2: the finalization stage. The firefighters are nowhere near that at all.
- 0:48Speaker 2: It's like they're starting from the beginning. Katy.
- 0:51Speaker 1: Yeah, it does seem as old agreement has been reached
- 0:53Speaker 1: with a lot of those other areas of the public service,
- 0:56Speaker 1: but it doesn't seem like we're any closer with the fireries.
- 1:00Speaker 3: Cad that be the right assumption to make.
- 1:03Speaker 2: That's correct, Katie, It's right. We've been going into these meetings.
- 1:07Speaker 2: Nothing's occurring, nothing's listening and we walk away disappointed, and
- 1:13Speaker 2: then you'll start seeing the fieries write more and more
- 1:16Speaker 2: on the trucks, etc.
- 1:18Speaker 1: Yeah.
- 1:18Speaker 3: Right, So what's the aim of today's meeting?
- 1:23Speaker 2: So the aim today, Katie, is bringing all the members
- 1:26Speaker 2: together so we can get clear instructions from them what
- 1:29Speaker 2: they want to do with these EA negotiations. Do we
- 1:32Speaker 2: ramp up more of the protected industrial action? Do we
- 1:36Speaker 2: withdraw some claims, continue to pursue some priority claims. We've
- 1:40Speaker 2: got the worst workers calm, say, staffing of appliances, the
- 1:45Speaker 2: wage increase, dealing with the retention and attraction alice springs
- 1:50Speaker 2: and the track stations. They've got quite a long list
- 1:53Speaker 2: that hasn't been resolved at all.
- 1:54Speaker 1: Katie Erina, what action do you expect that they're going
- 1:58Speaker 1: to take after today?
- 2:00Speaker 3: You think they're going to decide.
- 2:03Speaker 2: I think today you'll probably see a lot more media
- 2:05Speaker 2: stories being coming out about how poorly run the fire services.
- 2:11Speaker 2: Reason a lot of people don't realize it is the
- 2:14Speaker 2: poor cousins of police and it is one on a
- 2:17Speaker 2: shoe string budget, and I think you're going to have
- 2:19Speaker 2: a lot of fire He's going to say, well, let's
- 2:22Speaker 2: let's share the stories of actually how the fire services
- 2:24Speaker 2: actually won.
- 2:25Speaker 1: Yeah. Right, So today it sounds as though they really
- 2:29Speaker 1: want their voices to be heard.
- 2:32Speaker 2: Absolutely, they want to be heard really, really loud, because
- 2:36Speaker 2: they do go out and they do such an amazing
- 2:38Speaker 2: job for the territorians, and I think they really need
- 2:41Speaker 2: the support and the assistance of the territory erin.
- 2:46Speaker 1: Have we got a situation at the moment where we've
- 2:48Speaker 1: got firees leaving the Northern Territory based on those various
- 2:52Speaker 1: conditions and maybe seeing as being more attractive to move
- 2:56Speaker 1: into state.
- 2:58Speaker 2: Yeah, we do, Katie. So at the moment we've got
- 3:00Speaker 2: thirty eight have actually applied for other fire services around
- 3:04Speaker 2: the country, which is quite a lot for such a
- 3:07Speaker 2: small fire service. And it's actually our very qualified fieries Katie,
- 3:12Speaker 2: who's been around for a long time. They're leaving because
- 3:15Speaker 2: they feel undervalued. They're now one of the lowest paid
- 3:18Speaker 2: firefighters in the country because everyone else had wage increases
- 3:22Speaker 2: or we had a significant wage freeze, etc. So they
- 3:26Speaker 2: feel really undervalued and they don't feel that they're actually
- 3:30Speaker 2: respected within the fire service.
- 3:34Speaker 1: Well, I reckon it's going to be interesting to see
- 3:36Speaker 1: exactly how it all rolls out. Today, Eron, any idea
- 3:39Speaker 1: how many fierries you might guess at that mass meeting.
- 3:43Speaker 2: We're probably expecting round about one hundred and forty one
- 3:46Speaker 2: hundred and fifty fieries because people are going to be
- 3:48Speaker 2: joining in via zoom as well.
- 3:49Speaker 3: Yeah wow, So.
- 3:52Speaker 1: I'm assuming that they're stepping away from work or are
- 3:55Speaker 1: they people that are not rostered on today?
- 3:58Speaker 2: So we've got people rosted on, people coming in from
- 4:01Speaker 2: the stations and stuff like that. So yeah, it's all
- 4:05Speaker 2: been coordinated so we can get mass attendance and we
- 4:07Speaker 2: can make sure we have clear instructions exactly and how
- 4:11Speaker 2: they want to proceed.
- 4:12Speaker 1: Well, I'll be really keen to hear how it goes.
- 4:14Speaker 1: We might have to have a quick catch up with
- 4:16Speaker 1: you again tomorrow morning, if that's.
- 4:17Speaker 3: All right, Erina, that's no problem with it all.
- 4:20Speaker 2: Katie, good on you.
- 4:21Speaker 3: Thanks so much for your time this morning.
- 4:24Speaker 2: Thank you have a great day you too,