On Tuesday 8 October, with the new government barely 100 days old, around 1,000 firefighters gathered in central London for a national rally and lobby of parliament.
It was a serious show of strength and dedication from FBU members. Our headline for the day was “rebuild our fire service”.
This can be done with investment, new national standards in the fire service, and workers’ rights. These demands are not just nice ideas. They are within our grasp. Labour committed prior to the election to re-establish national standards, and to the New Deal for Working People – which includes the repeal of the Tories’ latest anti-union laws.
These promises are not a coincidence, but the result of years of careful work by the FBU. FBU members came from every corner of the UK (the Inverness branch banner was among the most prominent) because they understood the necessity of continuing to apply pressure on this government to deliver.
NEW WORKERS’ RIGHTS
Shortly before we went to press, the government published its Employment Rights Bill, the culmination of years of work by the FBU and other unions.
As Labour has a majority of 174, it is very likely to become law. When it does so, we will see the biggest expansion in workers’ rights in decades. But we must be clear that our work is not done. The FBU will keep up the pressure.
FIGHT FOR JUSTICE
This is the first issue of Firefighter since the final report of the Grenfell Tower Inquiry. It was more than seven years from the events of 14 June 2017 to the publication of Phase Two of the Inquiry on 4 September 2024.
The FBU shares the grief and anger of the bereaved, survivors and residents. We call for justice for those who were killed and traumatised by this entirely preventable fire.
Firefighters and fire control staff were put in an impossible position, forced to respond to a fire in a high-rise building effectively wrapped in petrol. Many behaved heroically on the night, and we should all be proud of them.
We always argued that the fire was the result of decades of failure by central government to regulate the building industry – the prioritisation of private profit over human life. Residents and firefighters repeatedly warned of the dangers of combustible cladding. They were ignored.
The inquiry report vindicates those who warned of the dangers of deregulation, including the FBU.
