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p2
 One fire that Stoke Newington firefighters have kept going is
the one that has been burning brightly in the brazier outside their station in Church
Street. They have been taking strike action for the first time since 1977. Why?
Part of the answer can be found by a walk down Church Street and a quick look in the
estate agents' windows. A one-bedroom flat costs £180,000. This means that none of the
local firefighters most of whom have families can afford to live here, yet they are
required to know every hydrant and street in the area. Stoke Newington is one of the
busiest fire stations in London. Last year it dealt with over 3,000 incidents, including
665 fires and a further 600 calls to other areas. Their past pay formula linked them to
the higher-paid manual workers and in the 1970s that provided a reasonable wage. The
decline of those manual jobs means that firefighters have fallen far behind related
occupations such as the police. These are the facts:
• Annual pay £21,531plus £3,400 London weighting (the police receive £6,000).
• Take-home pay £6.50 an hour.
• A fire service shift covers 8 days! . Five days are worked in full or in part
for a total of 48 hours and are followed by 3 rest days.
• During 2002, they will work 35 out of 52 weekends, in full or in part.
 Government opposition to the original claim for £30,000 (but since reduced
to provide the basis for negotiations) has been based on the need for 'modernisation.' The
firefighters claim that this is merely an excuse to reduce the number of jobs while
preserving the same level of cover; something they say is impossible. The industrial
conflagration has produced a great deal of smoke and hot air much of it generated by
John Prescott who vetoed a 16 per cent deal reached between the union and the employers in
the early hours of 22 November.
Tony Krasij is 46 years old, married with two kids. He lives in Kent, 42 miles from Stoke
Newington and has been a firefighter for 22 years. Daniel Reynolds is 31, single and
shares a house in Whitechapel with three other people. He earns £19,700 as he has been in
the service for only two and a half years. Last Christmas he was featured in the local
press after crawling along a ladder to rescue a four year-old boy who had fallen through
the ice on a Clissold Park pond. John Waithe is 42, single and lives in Edmonton. He was
born in Guyana.
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