Firefighters Risk Innocent Lives
London's firefighters are to go on strike later today - in a crazy dispute that will put innocent lives at risk.
Industrial action is also due to take place on Bonfire Night - the busiest night of the year - a date chosen deliberately by the Fire Brigades Union (FBU).
What's the dispute about?
Very little - the London Fire Service wants to change the current 15-hour night shift and nine-hour day shift to provide a longer day shift.
The reason - to provide more firefighters on day shift - when most fire safety and fire prevention work is carried out.
In any other walk of life a responsible trade union - would be telling the employer that it's completely unreasonable - dangerous in fact - for anyone to be working a straight 15-hour night shift - week in week out.
The reality is that the London FBU is trying to defend the indefensible - shift patterns should be built around the needs of the service - not the lifestyles of the workforce.
Firefighters do a difficult and dangerous job at times - so do other groups of essential workers - but you don't find them trying to hold the public to ransom.
As Jimmy Reid said at the beginning of the UCS work-in: "We're not strikers - we're responsible people."
The same can't be said of the London branch of the FBU - they should think again before it's too late - and before someone pays a high price for their industrial action.
