Firefighters have reacted angrily to a threat to sack them by the chairman of Boris Johnson’s fire authority. FBU leader Matt Wrack said: “Firefighters hate going on strike, but they hate being bullied even more. The London Fire Brigade needs to lift the sacking notices and start negotiating properly.”
The capital’s 5,600 firefighters will walk out on October 23 and November 1 after a strike ballot in which 79 per cent of the membership voted for action over plans for controversial new employment contracts. Brian Coleman, the Tory chair of the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority, said: “Firefighters who don’t sign the new contract won’t be re-employed.”
Navin Shah, Labour’s leader on the fire authority, said: “No one wants this strike, least of all Londoners. It is because of the aggressive, confrontational way the Conservatives have gone about trying to force through these changes that we find ourselves in a situation that could have been avoided. Boris Johnson and his Conservative chair have been spoiling for a fight with the union.”
