History: A radical change in an organisation with long-standing traditions was always going to be difficult, but in this environment, it was intensely difficult. Needless to say, the UFU and the Ambulance Employees Association (AEA) were initially wary of the idea of EMR. The AEA, having recently endured government cost-cutting measures and industrial disputation, was concerned along with the UFU that EMR was being introduced as part of this process and that its members could lose jobs to firefighters. On this basis, the AEA and UFU initially refused to support the MFB's proposal, it took time, careful negotiations and many hours of consultation before the unions gave their full support to the MFB's first EMR pilot program. During 1994 the MFB and UFU had entered into a period of enterprise bargaining (EB) where EMR was incorporated as part of an EB package. At that time the EB on offer was rejected by the UFU. This subsequently meant that the EMR proposal was also rejected and training stopped. When EB negotiations broke down completely, the Australian Industrial Relations Commission intervened, and on 4 December 1996, the commission handed down a decision on the EB package that included the introduction and trial of an emergency medical response role for firefighters. The undertaking of an MFB EMR role began as a pilot in 1998 under the supervision of a Government appointed committee, which incorporated 5 sub-committees (operations, medical, training, media/pr and finance) chartered with overseeing the program's introduction. The program was confirmed as a core activity of the MFB within the Metropolitan Fire District (MFD) in October 2001