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Speaker 1: Oh, the Northern Territory Firefighter Union, they're calling a mass

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Speaker 1: firefighter member meeting for today, which will be nine hundred

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Speaker 1: and thirty four days since workers have not had a

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Speaker 1: pay increase. The Northern Territory United Workers' Union secretary Erina

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Speaker 1: Early says the meeting will give members the chance to

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Speaker 1: discuss what actions they're going to take next. She joins

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Speaker 1: me on the line right now, Good morning to you, Erina.

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Speaker 2: Morning Katie.

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Speaker 1: Now, Erina, tell me what is the sentiment at the

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Speaker 1: moment of the firies.

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Speaker 2: Well, they're pretty disappointed how they're being treated by the government, Katie.

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Speaker 2: They're basically like the last on the pile of the

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Speaker 2: enterprise agreements. Most of them are now in coming to

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Speaker 2: the finalization stage. The firefighters are nowhere near that at all.

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Speaker 2: It's like they're starting from the beginning. Katy.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, it does seem as old agreement has been reached

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Speaker 1: with a lot of those other areas of the public service,

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Speaker 1: but it doesn't seem like we're any closer with the fireries.

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Speaker 3: Cad that be the right assumption to make.

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Speaker 2: That's correct, Katie, It's right. We've been going into these meetings.

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Speaker 2: Nothing's occurring, nothing's listening and we walk away disappointed, and

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Speaker 2: then you'll start seeing the fieries write more and more

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Speaker 2: on the trucks, etc.

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Speaker 1: Yeah.

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Speaker 3: Right, So what's the aim of today's meeting?

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Speaker 2: So the aim today, Katie, is bringing all the members

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Speaker 2: together so we can get clear instructions from them what

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Speaker 2: they want to do with these EA negotiations. Do we

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Speaker 2: ramp up more of the protected industrial action? Do we

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Speaker 2: withdraw some claims, continue to pursue some priority claims. We've

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Speaker 2: got the worst workers calm, say, staffing of appliances, the

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Speaker 2: wage increase, dealing with the retention and attraction alice springs

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Speaker 2: and the track stations. They've got quite a long list

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Speaker 2: that hasn't been resolved at all.

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Speaker 1: Katie Erina, what action do you expect that they're going

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Speaker 1: to take after today?

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Speaker 3: You think they're going to decide.

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Speaker 2: I think today you'll probably see a lot more media

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Speaker 2: stories being coming out about how poorly run the fire services.

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Speaker 2: Reason a lot of people don't realize it is the

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Speaker 2: poor cousins of police and it is one on a

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Speaker 2: shoe string budget, and I think you're going to have

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Speaker 2: a lot of fire He's going to say, well, let's

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Speaker 2: let's share the stories of actually how the fire services

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Speaker 2: actually won.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. Right, So today it sounds as though they really

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Speaker 1: want their voices to be heard.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely, they want to be heard really, really loud, because

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Speaker 2: they do go out and they do such an amazing

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Speaker 2: job for the territorians, and I think they really need

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Speaker 2: the support and the assistance of the territory erin.

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Speaker 1: Have we got a situation at the moment where we've

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Speaker 1: got firees leaving the Northern Territory based on those various

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Speaker 1: conditions and maybe seeing as being more attractive to move

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Speaker 1: into state.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, we do, Katie. So at the moment we've got

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Speaker 2: thirty eight have actually applied for other fire services around

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Speaker 2: the country, which is quite a lot for such a

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Speaker 2: small fire service. And it's actually our very qualified fieries Katie,

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Speaker 2: who's been around for a long time. They're leaving because

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Speaker 2: they feel undervalued. They're now one of the lowest paid

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Speaker 2: firefighters in the country because everyone else had wage increases

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Speaker 2: or we had a significant wage freeze, etc. So they

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Speaker 2: feel really undervalued and they don't feel that they're actually

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Speaker 2: respected within the fire service.

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Speaker 1: Well, I reckon it's going to be interesting to see

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Speaker 1: exactly how it all rolls out. Today, Eron, any idea

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Speaker 1: how many fierries you might guess at that mass meeting.

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Speaker 2: We're probably expecting round about one hundred and forty one

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Speaker 2: hundred and fifty fieries because people are going to be

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Speaker 2: joining in via zoom as well.

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Speaker 3: Yeah wow, So.

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Speaker 1: I'm assuming that they're stepping away from work or are

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Speaker 1: they people that are not rostered on today?

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Speaker 2: So we've got people rosted on, people coming in from

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Speaker 2: the stations and stuff like that. So yeah, it's all

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Speaker 2: been coordinated so we can get mass attendance and we

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Speaker 2: can make sure we have clear instructions exactly and how

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Speaker 2: they want to proceed.

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Speaker 1: Well, I'll be really keen to hear how it goes.

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Speaker 1: We might have to have a quick catch up with

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Speaker 1: you again tomorrow morning, if that's.

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Speaker 3: All right, Erina, that's no problem with it all.

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Speaker 2: Katie, good on you.

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Speaker 3: Thanks so much for your time this morning.

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Speaker 2: Thank you have a great day you too,