Fire dispute talks to be held (From Brentwood Weekly News)
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Fire dispute talks to be held
11:45am Thursday 5th July 2012 in News By Ryan McCarthy
TALKS are to be held today in the dispute between Essex fire service and its staff.
An exploratory meeting, organised by employment relations body ACAS, to try and resolve the stand off is taking place this afternoon.
It will be attended by the Essex Fire Brigades Union, national fire service conciliators and fire service managers.
Adrian Clarke, FBU regional secretary said: “We’re going to work hard to try and resolve the dispute and hope progress can be made.
"This is an exploratory meeting, but it is a step in the right direction.
“Exploratory talks are welcome but what we all need is for real progress to be made on the frontline cuts already being implemented and imposition of changes without agreement.
"It’s critical that we start to make progress on the issues at the heart of this dispute and we look forward to doing so.”
Firefighters went on strike last week to show bosses their anger at planned changes to crews.
