Fed up with the inflexibility of Britain's national government in negotiations (see WIT for Jan. 10, 2003), the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) is planning to use a series numerous strikes each lasting less than a full day to give Prime Minister Tony Blair's government maximum headaches at a minimum cost to members. The use of strikes lasting as little as two hours and separated by only a few days would wreak havoc on the government's use of military personnel to provide fire coverage during strikes as it takes troops a full day to mobilize and another to demobilize. Part of an overall strategy of "guerilla"-style labor unrest tactics adopted late last week by FBU officials and delegates, the part-day strikes would be accompanied by the flexible use of full-day and forty-eight-hour strikes, but nothing longer than four days in order to avoid major losses of pay for firefighters.
See DAVID TURNER, Financial Times, January 12, 2003