- For three days, not a single firefighter turned up for their morning shift at the Littré fire station in Lille.
- Almost all of the Lille firefighters at this station were on sick leave.
- Firefighters from the other two stations criticised their working conditions at a joint general meeting.
According to the CGT trade union, only 5 out of 17 had turned up for work on the fourth day, this Tuesday morning. A delegation from the Littré fire station was received by the management of the county fire and rescue service (SDIS 59), but without trade union representation. At the same time, a general meeting was organised outside Lille-Flandres station by around thirty on-duty firefighters from Lille’s two other fire stations, Malus and Bouvines, according to our colleagues at 20 Minutes.
“We’ve lost 200 firefighters in three years”
“In the North, we’ve lost 200 firefighters in three years. Our colleagues are cracking under the strain of chronic understaffing,” says Quentin de Velder, a CGT-SDIS representative, to our colleagues at 20 Minutes. According to him, it is the working conditions that are causing this surge in sick leave.
“For the past two years, Lille’s three fire stations have been constantly supporting one another to make up for the staff shortfall. This is causing problems for call-outs,” says Quentin De Velder, who predicts that the same pattern of sick leave could soon occur at other fire stations.
A report on the management of the SDIS
“We’re constantly operating under tight constraints,” notes Jacky Maniez of the CGT. “We understand that the SDIS wants to make savings, but not at the expense of the emergency services.” However, the firefighters may not be out of the woods yet, even though around twenty new firefighters are due to arrive by the end of the year.
Indeed, a report on the management of the SDIS is due to be published shortly. And, according to information from our colleagues, it highlights the generous allowances paid to firefighters in the Nord department since 2012. This is sure to add fuel to the fire.
Joint public sector demonstration in #Lille : Firefighters from Lille have come to support the protest at Place de la Gare and to remind the SDIS that they themselves are on strike due to overwork and staff shortages pic.twitter.com/DOMVrIdIL2
— Arnaud Dufresne (@VdnAdufresne) 22 May 2018