Defend fire safety: union to demonstrate

Posted in Tubeworker's blog on ,

As regular readers will know, the government has been trying its hand at abolishing Section 12. As all Tube workers will know - but some earwigging readers may not - Section 12 is the name we give to the Fire Precautions (Sub-Surface Railway Stations) Regulations 1989. That's the law introduced in the wake of the death of 30+ people in the 1987 Kings Cross fire, and which includes: minimum staffing levels, means of escape, staff training standards, means of detecting, containing and warning of fire, and more besides.

Instead, New Labour reckons we can do with a fire safety regime based only on risk assessment.

So basically, the government plans to insult the memory of those who died and to endanger passengers and workers in the future. And for what? Probably it might save London Underground Ltd a bit of money. And cash is something they are short of, particularly given that successive governments have starved them of it for years, and what dosh they do have goes towards stuff like Bob Kiley's £2m mansion and team-building trips to posh hotels for managers.

Anyways, as part of the campaign to defend the law, RMT has called a national demonstration on Saturday 26 November at 11am, outside Kings Cross station.

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Comments

Submitted by Tubeworker on Sat, 24/09/2005 - 13:45

Please note the revised date for this protest. It was originally scheduled for 18 November, but will now go ahead on 26 November.

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