ESSEX, ENGLAND--(Marketwire - May 22, 2012) - Ballot papers are going out to Essex fire crews this week in a strike vote over unnecessary frontline cuts and changes imposed without agreement. The ballot starts on Wednesday 23rd May and closes on 13 June. The law then requires at least seven days notice of any strike action after that date.
Essex Fire Brigades Union is writing today directly to Councillor Tony Hedley, chair of Essex fire authority, seeking his agreement to lift the block on allowing the national fire service conciliators and ACAS to work together on a possible way forward for conciliated talks.
The union says the ballot is necessary because the fire authority is imposing changes whilst also planning further cuts. 100 full-time fire station based crews have been axed since 2008 with retained 'on call' crews cut by 60. Further cuts now being planned will bring total losses of around one in five frontline firefighters since 2008.
Backroom staffing has risen by 7.5% - from 238 in 2008 to 256 today. The latest budget review shows underspends of £1.3 million on wholetime firefighters, £206,000 on retained and £136,000 on control firefighters.
Mick Rogers FBU brigade secretary said: "Essex fire crews are furious at what is going on and will be giving their verdict on cuts and imposed changes. Managers need to get their heads out of the sand and realise the strength of feeling.
"There is still time enough to resolve the issues between us and we are now asking the Chair to the Fire Authority to use his good offices to remove the barriers to serious talks getting underway. But if there is no genuine intention or positive moves to resolve the very real concerns of the frontline professionals then strike action becomes an ever increasing prospect.
"Essex fire crews are united and very determined on this matter. This is not the small group of disgruntled militants the chief's PR team is suggesting, but a huge swell of opposition.
"No firefighter ever wants to take strike action but it will happen if things go on like this. I'd urge the Fire Authority to wake up, understand the strong views of their own crews and kick start talks to resolve this dispute."
London 2012 Olympics: Ministry of Defence to control London airspace during Games for first time since Second World War - Daily Telegraph
RAF jets will be stationed at Northolt, close to Heathrow, for the duration of the Games.
Charles Farr, head of the Office for Security and Counter Terrorism, who is in charge of the anti-terror strategy for the London Olympics, said that he was confident the aircraft would be able to respond to any airborne threat in good time.
He defended the deployment of Rapier missiles, mobile ground radar systems and the Navy as similar to the response at other recent Olympics.
A Home Office counterterror official told The Times: “The military have to exercise the capability they may be called on to use.”
The official added that ministers would make a final decision about the deployment of the military response.
The news of the MoD's takeover comes as Heathrow Airport bosses have insisted they are ready for the Games, and the extra visitors, despite concerns about queues and security.
They believe that August 13, the day after the Olympics closing ceremony, will be the busiest day in the airport - the third largest in the world, according to a report last year - 93-year history.
Almost 138,000 passengers will be departing from Heathrow and the airport will have to deal with 25 per cent more luggage than usual, which amounts to 200,000 bags.
On Tuesday the Director of the Border Force for Heathrow, Marc Owen, said that customers would not endure long queues while going through passport control. All border desks, Owen said, would be manned from mid-July until the end of August and that be expected time targets to be met.
More than £20million has been invested in to Heathrow to help preparation, to ensure athletes and tourists can travel without any issues.
London 2012: More Olympic tickets to go on sale - BBC News
More tickets are to go on sale on Wednesday for events at the London 2012 Olympics - with anyone eligible to buy a ticket.
There are some £20 tickets left for sports such as volleyball, table tennis, weightlifting, taekwondo, boxing and fencing.
But several sports have sold out, and there are only higher-priced tickets left for most medal events.
The tickets will go on sale from 11:00 BST for 24 hours.
Their availability can already be viewed on the website.
Organisers Locog say there is a good number of tickets at the cost of £45 to £450 in sports including archery, badminton, basketball, beach volleyball, canoe sprint, diving, handball and hockey.
Only a limited amount of tickets are available in race walk, mountain biking, artistic gymnastics and rowing.
Up to four tickets can be purchased per session, and up to four sessions in one transaction, for all available sports apart from football - where more tickets are available to encourage groups to attend.
'Delivered on promise'All tickets have been sold in some sports, including athletics, cycling, equestrianism, rhythmic gymnastics and swimming and the opening and closing ceremonies.
Locog commercial director Chris Townsend said: "Our priority has been to get as many people who missed out in the sales process last year to the Games.
"We have delivered on our promise and now another 150,000 people have successfully purchased up to four tickets each."
He warned: "Wednesday's sale is a live sale, and, like other high demand events including pop concerts, we expect the website to be very busy and customers may well be held in queues for over 30 minutes at peak times".
The online ticketing system sparked criticism last year after it crashed under high demand.
In some cases, the system reportedly informed potential buyers they had secured tickets, who were later told that they had failed.
Windsor and Essex County school board trustees handcuffed by conflicts - Windsor Star
WINDSOR, Ont. -- For 21 years as a trustee Joan Courtney has represented the families at St. Theresa, but now that it's targeted for closure, she sits in silence.
"Not being able to do so now, just makes me want to cry," the Amherstburg trustee said late last week. Courtney said she is one of four Windsor-Essex Catholic District School Board's trustees who have been declaring conflicts of interest when the board deals with the emotional issue of closing and consolidating schools. There are a total of nine voting trustees.
The four with apparent conflicts - Courtney, John Macri, Jim McMahon and Bernie Mastronmattei - have children who work for the board as teachers. They have been advised to declare conflicts and not vote or participate in matters that affect personnel, according to Courtney, including budget discussions and these school accommodation reviews, which are likely to result in the elimination of teaching positions.
Their declarations have made parents feel abandoned, said parent Sarah Beaudoin, who has been fighting the recommendation to close St. Theresa and bus its kids to St. Bernard.
"It makes us mad as parents because we vote you in as trustees and then you back off and we can't count on you for your vote."
Courtney said she "absolutely" wishes she could be involved in the process. But it's clear - based on recent court decisions involving trustees in Toronto who were found in conflict for interest for voting against layoffs that might have affected their teacher children - she has a conflict.
"And in this particular case, it's very, very unfortunate because this is one of my schools that's closing and as much as I'd like to help I am silenced and not able to do so."
The other trustees with conflicts do not represent areas where the schools - in Lakeshore and Fontainebleau - are under threat of closure. But parents say they are disappointed because they had hoped to lobby all trustees as they try to save their schools.
Board chairwoman Barb Holland said she heard from some parents during recent school accommodation meetings express "some concerns" about trustees declaring conflicts. But until the June 26 meeting when the issue will be voted on, she can't speculate on who will declare. At three meetings last week, three declared Monday, two declared Tuesday and two declared Thursday.
"The Municipal Act states that if they have an interest they can't be part of it, they can't influence, they cannot speak to it," she said. "We've expressed that very clearly at each of these three meetings."
McMahon was one of the trustees declaring a conflict at the three meetings this week. He said he hasn't decided whether he'll declare at the June 26 meeting.
"This whole thing is really a mess in terms of interpretation of conflict of interest," said the first-term trustee. He said he would never have run last election if he had known about the conflict issue.
Courtney said the fact she has a daughter who teaches at the board was never a problem until recently. The situation came to light last year, as the board came under fire for deciding to lay off almost all librarians and effectively close libraries. It was discovered that five trustees declared conflicts, leaving just four to make the decision.
The five with conflicts were Courtney, Macri, McMahon and Mastronmattei, plus Frank Favot, who was advised he was in conflict because he was a member of the CAW, which represented the laid-off librarians. Favot subsequently got legal advice that he wasn't in conflict.
Courtney said trustees have become very cautious and afraid of being accused of having a conflict. Fines and removal from office are possible.
"In this particular case, I can't do my job," she said. "These are the people who elected me and when I'm prevented from helping them due to this stupid conflict of interest rule, I get very discouraged."
London 2012 Olympics: Louis Smith leads Britain's gymnastics charge - The Guardian
Four years ago few would have tipped British men's gymnastics to be among the best in the world and pushing for medals at the London Olympics. As little as two years ago Britain's men had never qualified for the team final at the European championships.
How things have changed. On Wednesday the men's European championships begin in Montpellier and, even without Daniel Keatings, the injured world all-around silver medallist and European pommels champion, Great Britain is expected to impress. Five senior gymnasts will be hoping to make their mark on the competition that forms an important staging post on the journey to the Olympic Games. Germany and Russia are the favourites to take the team title, but after Great Britain's silver medal finish in 2010 the nation now expect to be in the running for a podium place.
What has been the transformative factor in their success? Team dynamics says Louis Smith, who captained the team to Olympic qualification at the test event held in London this year. "We cry and bleed together, which is what you need in terms of a team," says Smith. "Well, some people cry – but pretty much all of us bleeds."
Smith, the first individual British gymnast to win an Olympic medal in 80 years when he took bronze on the pommel horse in Beijing, has witnessed the change over the past four years. In Beijing, the 23-year-old admits, the competition was a lonely experience with just two British men qualifying for the individual finals. "Even before that we'd go to a Europeans [as a team] and we knew we were going to come 10th, and we knew we weren't going to make any finals apart from me on pommels, so it was nerve-racking knowing a lot of it depended on me. Now it's very different. We've got everyone making finals and everyone doing very well. It's very positive, we're all taking steps in the right direction."
"The belief is there that we can do well. We now know that we're contestants on a world stage at the top level, with that belief everyone's improving and because everyone's improving it's harder to get into the team, the standard is so high now. It's made life a lot more difficult for people trying to qualify and get into the team but that's good. We want to have a selection of 10 guys instead of four."
There are at least seven world-class Britons in a squad of 12 competing for five places in the men's team, announced on 4 July, at the Olympics. One of those set to make a name for himself in London is 21-year-old Daniel Purvis who took bronze on the floor at the world championships in 2010. He was ranked No1 in the world last year after a series of impressive World Cup performances and finished fourth in the world championships last October.
"The main priority at the Europeans is the team," said Purvis. "We came second in Birmingham in 2010 so if we can do the same again or even get the gold that would be awesome. Individually it will be about apparatus finals – if I can make the floor and P-bar finals that would be great. This is the last big competition ahead of the Olympics so if we can do well it might help put the idea in the judges' minds where we could be placed. It is important."
"In terms of what it means for the Olympics, everyone's fighting for a place on the team. The Europeans are going to be a good landmark to see who's in the team. There's a bit of pressure for everyone."
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