Sligo firefighters have accused senior management at Sligo County Council of ignoring their ongoing strike.
On-call members of the fire service first started industrial action on June 6th in a dispute over the low level of pay and restrictive conditions of the job.
In an escalation of that strike, all retained fire stations across Sligo, Leitrim and Donegal will “go dark” from 8 o’clock tomorrow morning – meaning crews will have no internal communications with local authority radio call centres.
Meanwhile, SIPTU says it’s receiving reports from across the country that Retained Fire Fighters are having their payments refused because of the strike.
The union’s written to the Social Protection Minister seeking clarification as the dispute escalates.
Speaking from the picket line at Riverside today, Sligo retained Firefighter Alan Keane says they’re frustrated:
SIPTU are also investigating if social protection payments for retained firefighters are deliberately being blocked as a result of the dispute.
Mr. Keane said that he wasn’t aware of that being the case in Sligo, but labelled the situation as ridiculous, should it come to pass:
