Green Party Assembly Member Darren Johnson AM has accused Fire Authority Chair, Brian Coleman of deliberately sabotaging a negotiated settlement to the fire dispute.
Darren commented:
"Brian Coleman’s latest comments show that he has never been interested in resolving this dispute in an amicable way, he just wants to break the FBU. Even as the London Fire Brigade and the FBU are on the verge of an agreed settlement over shift patterns Brian Coleman weighs in and tries to wreck things. Brian Coleman has become addicted to conflict. It’s time for him to go and the London Mayor should sack him."
In an interview in today’s Ham & High Mr Coleman said:
"The union are thoroughly unpleasant and nasty lot – they always have been. They are not affiliated with the Labour Party and stories about bullying and intimidation go right back to the strike in the late 70s. You just have to stand up to thugs and bullies. The vast majority of firefighters are entirely, on a one-to-one level, decent and pleasant individuals.
"Most of the union officials, if they had half a brain cell, they’d be dangerous. Most of them are thick, can’t string a sentence together and frankly are incoherent.
"We have to break the FBU frankly because they are not a union operating in the interests of their members and certainly not taxpayers as has been proven time and time again. They’ve been a block to modernisation right along the line."