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HUNDREDS of firefighters and their supporters packed Glasgow’s George Square today to demand service cuts be scrapped.
Members of the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) were joined by comrades from the CWU, PCS, GMB, Unite, and Unison, united to defeat the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service’s (SFRS) plans to cut £36 million from its budget over the next four years, with a staggering £11m this year alone.
The SNP minister with responsibility for the service, Siobhian Brown, had been invited to address the rally, but declined citing a diary clash.
She told Holyrood just weeks ago that there was “no cash crisis” at the service.
Speakers took to the roof of a fire engine in the square to offer their solidarity in the FBU Cuts Leave Scars campaign.
Scottish Green MSP Maggie Chapman pledged her party’s support to resist government cuts to SFRS.
Scottish Labour MSP Pauline McNeill said: “You have the support of the general public — that much is clear.”
FBU general secretary Matt Wrack told the rally: “The chief fire officer, the chair of the SFRS board, the minister and the First Minister need to withdraw these cuts.
“As we look across the world, fires are happening at an unprecedented scale — including our own experience here in Scotland and across the rest of the UK.
“So I urge the First Minister to sit down with us and discuss how we invest in the future of our service.
“For any doubter, I would say this: we won on pay by sticking together, and by sticking together we win this fight as well.”
FBU Scotland executive council member Colin Brown told the rally: “Modernisation doesn’t come cheap, and it doesn’t come with £36m of cuts over four years.
“This needs to be opposed in the Scottish Parliament, and the pressure needs to be put on not only to stop these cuts, but to reverse the cuts to the SFRS.
“There have been 1,100 jobs cut already, there’s been three control rooms shut already, and now we face the the loss of another 200 jobs.
“That’s what today is about. Let us be clear, we will fight this all the way, and if that means industrial action to save jobs, services and lives, so be it.
“Enough is enough.”
