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Why firefighters have to strike Firefighters love their jobs – but 12-hour shifts and fewer staff won't help to save more lives Linda Smith guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 2 November 2010 19.00 GMT On Monday, two of my colleagues were hit by vehicles that were driven into picket lines. But many stories focused on the "scandal" of having firefighters striking on bonfire night. This illustrates the battle that London firefighters have faced, and I want to set the record straight. I am 47, and have been working as a London firefighter since 1985. I report to my station in Wandsworth to be on duty at 9am, where my colleagues and I are on constant emergency calls until 6pm. On top of always being available for the public, we train every day to keep our skills up to date and familiarise ourselves with risks. We install fire alarms, and counsel and reassure local residents by visiting their homes. During night shifts, which are from 6pm to 9am, we also help other stations if they are short of staff – and we do not get much rest. Our work demands a high level of fitness, for us to be calm under pressure, and to be extremely resilient: it's a physical job where you can easily pick up injuries. We can't come to work if we are ill or injured, as we never know what demands will be placed upon us. My station receives about 1,800 emergency calls a year – from fires in flats, houses and other premises to traffic accidents and chemical spills – as well as distress calls from people who do not know who else to contact for help. After having worked for 25 years, I take home a measly £1,800 a month. The vast majority of us can't afford to buy a house in London. I work weekends, nights and often during Christmas, Easter and every other holiday. We used to receive seniority pay increments, but we did not this year. And our pay has been frozen for the next three years. However, I love my job and am extremely disappointed that we have been bullied by our management until forced to take strike action. This year, the management has decided we should work to 12-hour shifts. When firefighters were surveyed, a whopping 97% of us said we disagreed with the idea. Why? Our lives are organised around our current shifts, and longer shifts would affect not only our own lives but those of our families. Many of us would return home to sleeping children. We would have to wave goodbye to family time and any semblance of a social life. And we suspect that our management would eventually allow "differential cover", meaning fewer staff on call at night – which is when we have the highest rate of casualties. The London Fire Brigade PR and communication team has already spent a good amount of money trying to persuade the public that those changes would save more lives, but this is utter nonsense. People who have never worked in fire stations are telling us what's best for us, and how to do our jobs. Public money should be spent on firefighters' work on the ground, not on misinformation campaigns. Despite this our union remained eager to negotiate and had already put forward proposals in order to reach a compromise. Unfortunately, the management decided to invoke section 188 of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992, which would allow them to legally sack us all, and to offer us re-employment contracts only on their terms. This extraordinary abuse of power is what forced us to strike. You can't negotiate with people who have a gun pointed at your head. We are united on this issue; I know of only three staff members out of the 5,557 threatened with the sack who have decided to work next weekend. Despite enormous pressure from the management, we will not back down. Only when we announced our plans to strike were questions about our predicament raised in the Commons, and we received media coverage. The Daily Mail has been naming and shaming colleagues who have taken second jobs (which is allowed) to bump up their incomes, going as far as publishing their pictures. As if we should be ashamed to want to work more to make ends meet! We have been called greedy and lazy, and yet we have not been asking for more money; we are solely working to preserve a job that we know inside out. We do regret having to do this on bonfire night – but if Santa Claus were going on strike, he wouldn't do it in February, would he? In the meantime, emergency services on Friday will be provided by a private company called AssetCo, whose staff do not have the same training as regular firefighters. Just ask yourself: who do you trust? Firefighters who love the job and want to preserve it, or the rightwing media who are trying to slander our entire profession? Linda Smith has been a firefighter for 25 years Comment is free | guardian.co.uk ... jobs-lives