Fire Brigades Union (FBU) general secretary Matt Wrack says Britain’s firefighters are astonished at the gall of Chancellor George Osborne’s assertion in today’s Autumn Statement that the country is ‘on the path to prosperity’.
“We look more like a society hurrying fast down the highway to poverty,” Matt Wrack said. “It is astonishing that in this age of technology, working people are expected to work longer than ever before.
“The state pension will not be payable until 70, and firefighters find themselves under particular attack. Already the government is insisting that our members work longer and pay more for a pension scheme that offers less money when we retire.
“It is hardly a sign of a prosperous society when emergency services are trimmed and cut to the detriment of the workforce and the peril of the public.”
The union yesterday revealed a second ballot of its members which authorised more varied industrial action in its dispute over firefighters’ pension provisions.
