Fire Brigades Union warns Scottish Government that it will consider ‘all options’ to defend jobs and services

Firefighters in Scotland are prepared to consider ‘all options’ to defend jobs and services in the face of swingeing cuts to the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service, a union leader has said.

Colin Brown, a member of the FBU’s national executive committee, gave the warning in a letter to the Scottish Government’s Victims and Community Safety Minister, Siobhian Brown.

The move follows the release of a document called ‘Operational changes 2023- 2024’ which sets out the £11 million of cuts required this year and ‘a further £11.3 million in 2024- 2025; £7.3 million in 2025-2026 and £6.9 million in 2026-2027.’

The document goes on to say that ‘the large majority of our running costs as a service comes from our staff and we cannot realistically reduce costs without reducing workforce numbers.’

In his letter Mr Brown says ‘The FBU have been clear, we will not tolerate the decimation of the service we work in. We will continue to robustly resist these cuts and will ensure that if there is no improvement in the budgetary situation for SFRS, we will hold to account and expose the politicians who are responsible and those who sit back and passively accept the loss of jobs and increased risk to the lives of our members and the safety of the public we serve.’

‘We are advising you today that the FBU will consider ALL options available to us to protect jobs and services.’

On Thursday Firefighters from across Scotland will gather in George Square Glasgow to demonstrate against the cuts being imposed at fire stations across Scotland. Stations across the central belt have been targeted with fire appliance numbers being cut and jobs lost. This comes against a backdrop of 1100 jobs having been cut from the service in the last decade.