Conditional Support For Fire Strike

Tuesday 21 January 2003

As British fire crews are due to begin their first national strike of 2003, a new survey from the MORI Social Research Institute shows they still enjoy public support — although their union and the Government do not.

Almost two thirds of people in Britain (63%) say they will support the strike as long as the fire crews still respond to major emergency calls. This is similar to the 65% who said the same in October. However, should crews fail to respond to major emergency calls, support drops to 17%, with three quarters (77%) of Britons opposing strike action.

When asked if they approve or disapprove of the way the Government and the Fire Brigade Union is handling the dispute, three in five people (61%) say they disapprove of the government, and more than half (56%) say they disapprove of the FBU.

Topline Results

• MORI interviewed a representative sample of 955 British adults aged 18+ on the MORI Telephone Omnibus.
• Interviews were carried out throughout Great Britain on 17-20 January 2003. Data are weighted to the known population profile.

As you may know, there is currently a dispute between the Government and local authority employers and the Fire Brigade Union over how much fire fighters should be paid.

Q1 Do you approve or disapprove of the way the Government is handling this dispute?

Q2 Do you approve or disapprove of the way the Fire Brigade Union is handling the dispute?

As part of their campaign fire fighters are currently planning to go on strike. If they go on strike, would you support or oppose the strike if they still responded to major emergency calls?

And would you support or oppose the strike if they did not respond to major emergency calls?