The Damage Caused by the LFB Smear Machine Will Take Years to Put Right, Says Fire Brigades Union Leader, Matt Wrack

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LONDON, ENGLAND--(Marketwire - Oct. 29, 2010) - "The London Fire Brigade has spent the last week smearing the men and women who work for them, and the damage done to the vital relationship between firefighters and their principal managers will take years, perhaps decades, to put right", FBU general secretary Matt Wrack said today.

Launching a dossier of LFB smears, Mr Wrack said:

"Each day, the large team of well paid press officers at LFB headquarters, paid for by Londoners, looks for a story which can be used to discredit its workforce, our members. Each day, something - a truth, a half truth, and sometimes just a lie - is fed to LFB's friends on right wing newspapers."

"The resentment this is causing among London firefighters runs very deep. When this dispute is over, there is no action LFB could take which will cancel out the harm they are doing now. I do not think the present LFB leadership will ever be forgiven."

"The London Fire Brigade press office seems to have tried to produce a smear each day.

Stories from this source include:



+ The great residences scandal. Confidential information about where our
members lived, kept by the LFB, was passed to two newspapers, the Daily
Mail and the Sun. The intention seems to have been to show that many of
them do not live in London. This is true, because our members are
increasingly being driven out of the capital by the high cost of finding
accommodation there.

+ The great GBP 10,000 scandal. The LFB told the media that we had claimed
GBP 10,000 for each firefighter. We made no such claim. The figure came
from an internal policy document, and, as the LFB knows, was never made
in negotiations.

+ The great picketing scandal. The LFB produced what it called a "dossier"
containing allegations of stone-throwing, vandalism, and making fake 999
calls. All these allegations are false."



Other stories may have come from the LFB spin machine, but may be freelance activities by newspapers. Some of these never make it into print because they are demonstrably false. These include:



+ The great expenses scandal. The Sun contacted the union on 26 October
with an allegation that the General Secretary, Matt Wrack, and three
other officials had spent over GBP 2 million on hotels, travelling,
meals and entertainment. The figures, the newspaper said, came from "a
tipoff," and we cannot of course know for certain whether the tipoff was
provided by the LFB. These figures were for the whole of the Fire
Brigades Union, including over 400 officials at brigade, regional and
sectional level and over 2,000 officials at local fire stations, the
union's annual conference and national and local education events.

+ The great RMT scandal. Someone held up a flag bearing the logo of the
rail union RMT in the midst of FBU banners in Southwark, an hour and a
half after the October 23 strike ended. On this basis, the claim was
made that the RMT was running our strike.


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