218 ANALYSING HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
Quarterly2002). In the UK, police numbers in England and Wales rose to
over 136,000 in 2003, up from about 124,000 in 2000 (BBC News 2nd October
2003 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3157138.stm)..) Against this background, a
new mandate for police to be involved in terrorist work would not be being
addressed to a declining workforce, or to one that felt it was particularly badly
paid.
Ambulance services are more centrally emergency services than police ser-
vices and are to that extent comparable to the fire service. Indeed, in Ireland,
firefighters even alternate as ambulance personnel (ILO discussion document
2003 op. cit. 22). In the UK, the ambulance service was for a long time seen as
the transport arm of the UK health service rather than as a first responder to
medical need; historically the occupation of ‘emergency medical technician’ in
the USA grew out of voluntary transportation work (Nelsen and Barley 1997).
The first responder role is now gaining in prominence according to the UK
Commission for Health Improvement study of ambulance services published
in 2003.
Morale in the UK ambulance service has lately been low, mainly on
account of the struggle to meet response time targets. Other problems have
been due to administrative reorganization. Ambulance services have become
National Health Service (NHS) trusts, and, like other trusts, their manage-
ments have been distracted by having to make decisions about merging with
other trusts for financial reasons. Like the fire service, the ambulance service
in its current demoralized state is being asked to take on new responsibil-
ities for emergency preparedness in connection with terrorist action. New
emergency powers legislation in the UK makes the ambulance service a cat-
egory 1 responder, on a par with the police and fire service. It does not
appear that this role is registered in increased pay, and day-to-day opera-
tions are dominated by normal emergency rather than abnormal emergency
preoccupations.
Like the fire service, then, the ambulance service seems to me to have been
drafted into preparations for disaster work without much fanfare or evident
consultation. It is not clear that there will be more money to assist with its
new tasks. Elsewhere, ambulance services are earmarked for financial cuts.
Even in New York, the Fire Department introduced an 8 per cent reduc-
tion in ambulance shifts in 2002 (ILO discussion paper op. cit. 23). Though
ambulance workers may not face all the hazards that go with firefighting,
they face many of the same sources of psychological stress. In the UK there
is a considerable risk of their being bounced into even more difficult work.
Or, in other words, there is a risk of reproducing the injustice facing UK
firefighters.
To conclude, the UK fire service strike demonstrates the need to disag-
gregate the general category of emergency service work and occupations. It