Union defends fire cooks
Trade union officials launched a campaign this Tuesday (24 April) to improve the pay and working conditions for cooks, cleaners and porters after Conservative members of the Greater London Assembly tried to sack all London Fire Brigade cooks earlier this year.
The Tory plan to cut £1m of London's firefighting budget was rejected by Mayor Ken Livingstone. Cooks remain employed at 100 of the 114 London fire stations and most work from 9am to 2pm. But cooks at other fire stations haven't been so lucky. All South Yorkshire fire station cooks were made redundant four years ago.
In Liverpool, firefighter Neil Thompson's station in Hardman Street employs a cook but some others don't. "Our workload shouldn't include having to cook our own meals. We still have to do it on our night shifts and it can cause us problems," he said.
Mike Lawson, national official of the Fire Brigade Union said: "Although we don't represent the cooks, we support any union fighting to keep peoples' jobs.
"When cuts come around, cooks tend to be the first thing to go, and some fire stations around the country have successfully campaigned to keep them. But because it's part-time, and not as glamorous as firefighting, it's not always an easy job to defend."