THE MAGAZINE OF THE FIRE BRIGADES UNION | WWW.FBU.ORG.UK OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2016 SAFETY FOR SALE TIMES HAVE CHANGED THE RISKS HAVE NOT SEE P14 Plus FBU AT THE LABOUR PARTY CONFERENCE SEE P10 FIREFIGHTER FATALITIES: MORE THAN JUST GUIDANCE NEEDED SEE P12 GENERAL SECRETARY’S COMMENT MATT WRACK CUTS, AND THOSE WHO FORCE THEM THROUGH, MUST BE RESISTED During September our BOX/REPORTDIGITAL.CO.UK PAUL current state of affairs where members in Greater response times are increasing, Manchester were facing a putting lives at risk. bleak future. We have campaigned More than 1,250 relentlessly over the past six firefighters faced the sack – years, warning politicians only those who agreed to sign that the scale of cuts to the up to worse conditions of fire and rescue service is service would be re-engaged. such that public safety is Greater Manchester seriously compromised. Fire and Rescue Service We now have fire authority has to find savings of more Rapid response – but continuing cuts will take effect members also publicly than £14m, but this is no expressing this fear, as the justification for threatening negotiating process was of mental ill health than the link between an increased such action. stopped, but our officials in rest of the population. response time and rising fire FBU officials mounted Greater Manchester are well We are proud that our deaths is inextricably linked. a vigorous campaign that aware that further battles lottery will see a higher But this government attracted a lot of public and lie ahead. They will get our percentage of the monies remains deaf to the political support. Officials full support. raised going directly towards concerned voices and further and members all played their the good causes it supports cuts are in the pipeline. The part in spreading the word THE REASON FOR OUR LOTTERY than many other lotteries. question is no longer “How that this was no way to treat People may assume that, This is how it should be. much worse does it have to a workforce and that the when a firefighter is killed or get?” but “How much worse FBU would not accept such injured while on duty, his or TORIES ARE THE REAL ENEMY can it get?” a threat. her family will be taken care And so Jeremy Corbyn We tried to get a dialogue We were at the Labour of financially. remains leader of the Labour going with employers by Party conference during Sadly, this is often not Party, so let’s work towards organising a fringe meeting this time and lobbied for the the case. Those who should building a united movement at this year’s Tory party support of politicians and be left in peace to grieve and remember that the conference, a first for the visitors alike while there. are suddenly and wrongly real enemy here is this FBU. Unsurprisingly, every shackled with serious money Tory government. We had speakers lined up single visitor to our stand worries at possibly the worst They are freezing public and invitations about to be passed on their support for time of their lives. sector pay for the seventh issued, when the conference these members in Greater Which is why, on 1 consecutive year, cutting organisers told us out of the Manchester, expressing October, we launched our critical, life-saving public blue that we had been refused horror that they should be so very own national lottery – to services to the bone. and that our fringe could not shoddily treated. raise funds for the families of At the same time they go ahead after all. The story caught the fallen and injured firefighters. are widening the chasm Would any government attention of national media The Firefighters 100 between the vast majority interested in the opinions and I was invited onto Lottery, so called because it of the population and a of a group of life-saving Radio 4’s influential Today is launching in the run-up to privileged few who enjoy a professionals have cut off programme to explain our centenary in 2018, will high standard of living, are this valuable opportunity to what was so bad about raise funds not only to help strangers to the stigma of promote dialogue between the proposals. these families but also offer claiming state benefits and them and their employers Later that week, we had humanitarian assistance the horrors of zero hours in a time few could deny is the welcome news that the to victims of fires and contracts, or year after year one of crisis for the fire and dismissal notices had been other incidents. without a holiday. rescue service? withdrawn and that both sides The lottery’s proceeds will Jeremy Corbyn has They say they are were going to the Technical also help to fund memorials pledged to invest in the fire interested in considering Advisory Panel. to fallen firefighters, and be and rescue service and to stop all views before making An ill thought out move used for research into the the cuts, promising to give decisions about important that would have gone against wellbeing of firefighters who, you, our members, the tools public services. This shows the grain of any proper joint we know, suffer higher rates to do the job, and end the what they really think of us. 2 FIREFIGHTER | OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2016 CONTENTS OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2016 NEWS REGULARS 4 Greater Manchester 5 Sounding off sack threat dropped Service must become 5 Jobs: MPs warned dyslexia friendly of ‘breaking point’ 7 TUC news round up 6 School sprinklers: law change threatens disaster 8 Aerial ladder platform Italian earthquake FEATURES 18 Health 10 Labour Party Sex addiction FBU takes centre stage 19 Legal Crewing changes are unlawful 10 12 Firefighter fatalities Guidance alone will not 20 Day off prevent further tragedies Mark Thomas dramatises the 14 The great sell-off issues facing working people Johnson’s cuts lengthen 22 Firefighters 100 Lottery response times 23 Station Cat 16 George Roberts The things they say … Pioneer soldier, firefighter and opinion former 24 25-year badges 20 FIREFIGHTER Published by the Fire Brigades Union Bradley House, 68 Coombe Road Kingston upon Thames KT2 7AE www.fbu.org.uk Design: editionpublishing.net 16 Print: Southernprint Ltd, 17–21 Factory Road, Poole, BH16 5SN OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2016 | FIREFIGHTER 3 SPRINKLER WARNING TUC Decision to drop FBU makes its requirement for presence felt with sprinklers in award-winning stand schools ‘arrogant’ and kit try-ons NEWS p6 p7 LEE BOSWELL/PA PHOTOS LEE BOSWELL/PA Firefighters rest after tackling an office blaze in Manchester. The Greater Manchester area has seen a 140% increase in rescues in the past 12 months. SACK THREAT DROPPED AFTER FBU PRESSURE GREATER MANCHESTER meeting of those affected. Matt Wrack in all rescues of 140% over the past 12 Plans to sack the entire Greater urged a packed roomful of firefighters to months, alongside a threefold increase in Manchester firefighter workforce were “fight back, not beg”. fire deaths. dropped at the end of September after Local and national media covered Manchester brigade secretary pressure from the union on the fire the story extensively, while every visitor Gary Keary told Firefighter: “We were authority to withdraw its threat. to FBU stands at the TUC and Labour absolutely staggered that GMFRS would Letters issued under Section 188 of Party conferences expressed horror at jeopardise workforce relations in this the Trade Union and Labour Relations what firefighters in Greater Manchester aggressive way. Act 1992 would have started the process could be facing. “To start the process for dismissing of terminating the employment of 1,250 More than 20,000 people signed an firefighters to then simply re-engage firefighters. Section 188 places a duty FBU petition asking for the GMFRS to them on an un-negotiated contract is on an employer to consult staff if they withdraw its plans. On 27 September the appalling, and a serious breach of agreed propose to dismiss as redundant 20 or affected firefighters breathed a collective mechanisms for industrial relations in more employees at one establishment sigh of relief as the news came through the UK fire and rescue service. within 90 days or less. that their jobs were no longer under “We did everything we could to Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue immediate threat. Talks between the avoid a bitter and damaging dispute Service (GMFRS) intended to re-employ FBU and GMFRS are continuing to try and, thankfully, in the end GMFRS saw only those firefighters who agreed to new to find a way forward. sense and withdrew their threat. We are 12-hour shifts. GMFRS is under pressure from continuing negotiations to try to find a The new arrangements would have central government to save £14.4m, even way forward.” meant many members hardly seeing though the service has seen an increase As Firefighter went to press, talks that their families. The employer was also began on 29 September via the Technical seeking to cut one fifth of the workforce, GREATER MANCHESTER FRS IS Advisory Panel (TAP), an offshoot of some 250 jobs. UNDER PRESSURE FROM CENTRAL the National Joint Council negotiating Soon after the plan became public, body, were in session. FBU general secretary Matt Wrack GOVERNMENT TO SAVE £14.4m Greater Manchester firefighters and president Alan McLean visited DESPITE A THREEFOLD INCREASE IN currently work two 10.5-hour shifts a Manchester –95% of GMFRS week plus two 13.5-hour night shifts, as firefighters are members – to address a FIRE DEATHS IN THE PAST YEAR well as some “rostered” reserve shifts. 4 FIREFIGHTER | OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2016 SOUNDING OFF MPs WARNED OF ‘BREAKING DYSLEXIA POINT’ IF MORE JOBS AXED AWARENESS Janice McClelland STAFFING CRISIS “Politicians seem to justify the unprec- edented cuts by repeating the line that there of Texthelp urges Nearly 10,000 firefighter jobs have been lost are fewer fires nowadays.