A Message of Solidarity to the Firefighters in Dispute in Liverpool
I send a message of support to the firefighters taking industrial action in Liverpool. No firefighter takes industrial action lightly but there comes a time when they see their service being put at risk and neither management nor government is willing to listen and so they have no alternative. That is what is happening in Liverpool and increasingly in other fire authority areas, as we saw in Hertfordshire only weeks ago.
Disputes are breaking out in various areas across the country as the local fire authorities develop their local integrated risk management plans. The Government has scrapped national fire safety standards and has withdrawn from any role in monitoring or enforcing any national performance levels. Instead local fire authorities have the responsibility to produce a local risk management plan, setting out local staffing levels and the level and type of service needed within their areas.
Some fire authorities have seen this as an opportunity to cut firefighter jobs, remove pumps and close fire stations.
The Government has washed its hands of setting national standards to which local fire authorities must adhere or of intervening to ensure fire authorities abide by any particular minimum level of staffing. The result is that in some areas local managers are riding roughshod over the views and experience of their front line staff.
The fear is that cutting firefighter jobs in LIverpool or anywhere else will put lives at risk. That is why I fully support the FBU not only in the industrial action its members are taking in Liverpool but also in calling upon management of the fire authority to engage in meaningful talks to resolve this dispute.
Disputes are breaking out in various areas across the country as the local fire authorities develop their local integrated risk management plans. The Government has scrapped national fire safety standards and has withdrawn from any role in monitoring or enforcing any national performance levels. Instead local fire authorities have the responsibility to produce a local risk management plan, setting out local staffing levels and the level and type of service needed within their areas.
Some fire authorities have seen this as an opportunity to cut firefighter jobs, remove pumps and close fire stations.
The Government has washed its hands of setting national standards to which local fire authorities must adhere or of intervening to ensure fire authorities abide by any particular minimum level of staffing. The result is that in some areas local managers are riding roughshod over the views and experience of their front line staff.
The fear is that cutting firefighter jobs in LIverpool or anywhere else will put lives at risk. That is why I fully support the FBU not only in the industrial action its members are taking in Liverpool but also in calling upon management of the fire authority to engage in meaningful talks to resolve this dispute.
posted by John at 12:51 AM
4 Comments:
I remember in the 80's when the term "risk management" first came into use. It's a cold euphemism for comparing the cost of death in terms of compensation etc, against the cost of saving that life.
I'm still a Labour Party member and a Labour Councillor in the Midlands.
I have, over the years, struggled with my position in the Party and I am now awaiting Conference to show true direction. If not, then can we justify continued membership?
To nye2now
Membership must continue otherwise there will be too few of us left in the party to enable success in the fight against the current trends. There is no other party to turn to, is there?
Yesterday Bucks fire service came round to my house to do a free Home Fire Risk check. This brilliant serivce covers all the things you need to know in the event of a fire such as making an escape plan, checking which parts of your home will make the best exits and keeping them clear etc and they will fit one or more smoke alarms with ten year batteries, also heat detectors if necessary and they have special equipment for the deaf and hard of hearing which they can install for you according to what you need. They told me that the service has been very popular and I will help them advertise at at toddler groups etc, and they are leafleting door to door as well as schools etc. It looked form their website as if every fire service in the country offers this service and they should be left alone as John explains above to prevent in this way as many fires as possible and to get on with firefighting when necessary instead of being subject to dangerous cuts. Ten years ago I worked in the Immigration Service and every idea New Labour has come up with are all things that we as staff on the ground rejected as unworkable, not that we were always listened to with the Tory goverment at the time and general poor management, rather like the situation the firefighters are in with theri management in some areas; things like uniforms for the officers (in some countries Immigration is handled by the police (they'll be wanting to arm them next, it looks like they have already got Sky Marshalls now as I heard on the news that they borrowed some from the US, though many other countries have them, to anyone who dosen't know sky marshalls are basically men with guns who fly on planes to uphold security) so that would stop there being a differnce between the two in our country and also in many countries people are far more scared of authority which of course uniforms represent than in ours and so they would be more fearful and in fact that could backfire on them for if they don't tell their full story to the immigration officers the circumstances of their case could be misunderstood and they could be refused when they didn't need to be. I hope the Home Fire Risk checks are not cut by the new risk management plans as this would be madness but I fear it could happen. Rather we should all spread the knowledge that all these sorts of preventative services are available - another one I've heard is very good and another preventative one I've heard is very good is the NHS Stop Smoking Service (I don't smoke so I can't testify personally but I've heard it's very good! and their breastfeeding support from specialist midwives to booklets has helped me) so that public opinion is overwhelmingly in their favour so they cannot be cut. If we had a real Labour government as John proposes we wouldn't have this uninformed and misguided meddling by management and Ministers which can literally put lives at risk as the Liverpool dispute highlights, because we would not scrap safety standards in firefighting and the other areas such as transport and so on or withdraw from making the services adhere to nationwide performance levels just to save money which is basically what the governnment are doing here.
Every bit of news like this strike and the bad PFIs and hopital ward closures and the lot makes me feel more and more as if we are re-visiting the last days of Thatcherism, haven't we been here before?? As they say Iraq is Blair's' poll tax so it is only a matter of time before he goes but if he dosen't jump he may have to be pushed!
However we don't want to limp out like the Tories did under the Major administration, we need a radical break with New Labour as it's the only option. The world is a lot different now from when Kinnock took over so we need different strategies, for instance the youth section of the LRC is challenging the drift to conservatism amongst young people. This is urgent as the Tories are basically stealing Labour's thunder on flexible working, green issues and Bob Geldof has even said he's work with them so disillusioned is he with New Labour's record on alleviating policy. This must be stopped not just by the youth section I mean but all of us or I really do think we will lose the next election and public services and our foreign policy will be dire. We can undo this, it's all been created, it wasn't an inevitable process so let's get to it' as well as campaigning we can do things like estand as councillors, instead of worrying we can't beat the Tories or the New Labour candidate we should just for it as we could win but you've got to be in in to win it but the Blairites make things deliberately difiicult so that people give up before they start, this has been proven at conference and with candidate selection. It can and must be challenged.
NB my college mag used to have opposing "Rant" and "Rave" columns, this started off as a rave in a way in that I was praisinf fire prevention services but has turned into more of a rant against New Labour but I hope a constructive one!
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