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UK fire strike ends -- for now
LONDON, England -- The latest strike action by UK firefighgters has ended with union leader Andy Gilchrist issuing a defiant challenge to Prime Minister Tony Blair's government. The eight-day strike ended at 0900 GMT on Saturday but prospects are high that another threatened strike beginning next Wednesday will go ahead. Hours after the end of the latest stoppage, Gilchrist, who leads the 55,000-strong Fire Brigade Union, said: "I'm quite prepared to work to replace New Labour with what I'm prepared to call Real Labour. "I have no nostalgic romanticism about old Labour but there are real Labour values built on real social progress, on real justice for working class people and indeed for fairness for all." He said the UK government had "ensured and provoked" the fire strike and was "prepared to play with people's lives." The strikers are demanding a 40 percent pay increase and took industrial action over an original offer of four percent. Up to 16 percent over three years has been offered by the employers but only if the FBU agrees to a major overhaul of working practices. The FBU national executive is to meet on Monday and there were calls to suspend the next strike so further talks could be held. Negotiations ended without agreement on Friday after employers failed to table a new pay offer. As with a 48-hour strike earlier this month -- the first firefighters' strike in the UK for 25 years -- the latest walkout saw an army of 19,000 Ministry of Defence personnel providing fire cover using 820 ageing "Green Goddess" engines. A spokesman for John Prescott, Blair's deputy, told the Press Association: "Everyone is glad that the eight-day strike is over. "The armed forces have performed magnificently and everyone owes them many thanks and congratulations.
"There now needs to be an opportunity for the Local Government Association and the FBU to get back into meaningful negotiations on a sensible economic basis with any pay increases over 4 percent paid for by modernisation. "The FBU should call off next week's strike." A defiant Blair said on Friday: "Under the existing pay formula which has been in place for 25 years, there's 4 percent on the table. "That's as much as anyone is getting in other parts of the public sector. "If they want more than that, it's got to be paid for by a change in working practices and people have to get round the table and negotiate on that basis. "We have got to look at the broader interests of the country. "If they want to change the existing pay formula, then fine, but not by a series of strikes that cannot be justified."
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