Editorial November will be one of the toughest months in the recent memory of Londoners with firefigthers, tube workers and postal workers all involved in strike actions or threats of strike.
The Fire Brigades Union resumes another day of strikes today following the breakdown in talks with the London Brigade Authority, leaving large areas of London with no emergency fire service, coupled with ongoing tube disruptions, Londoners are waking up to a miserable November.
The theme here is that City Hall does not want to allow out of date practices to continue, and is correctly pushing for new contracts to be agreed by the firefighters. Brian Coleman, chairman of the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority, said: "This action is based on suggested cuts. There are no cuts. This strike is pointless and unjustified and we must focus on talks to resolve the dispute."
The allegations of a "smear campaign" on firefighters simply does not fly. For many years firefighters have been allowed to use their job in the fire service as a "useful earner" and also do other jobs. But now with fire prevention methods in many households, the need does not exist for so many fire-fighters. The fire-fighters should understand that with the amount of eastern European labour in London, it would not take much for cheaper and more efficient workers to be introduced into the fire service.
London's Fire Authority signed a £9 million five-year contract last year with AssetCo to provide a contingency level of fire and rescue services if fire-fighters were not available because of severe pandemic illness, industrial action, natural disaster or catastrophic incident.
A brigade spokesman said: "The current start and finish times have been in place since 1979 and the work we do today has changed dramatically. We don't just respond to fires any more.
"Firefighters train for and attend a much wider range of incidents such as flooding, collapsed buildings, chemical incidents etc, and work harder than ever before to prevent fires from happening in the first place.
The FBU on its part fired off a series of rebuttals Ian Leahair, said:
"It was a bitter and hurtful campaign waged by LFB spin doctors to try to discredit the men and women who keep London safe."
The stakes are high, City Hall cannot afford to back down over the firefighters dispute, new contracts will be signed eventually by the firefighters, the FBU should be realistic and try and protect their members jobs, not talk them out of employment.
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