Eleven days before the 2014 Victorian state election, Daniel Andrews addressed more than 1,000 firefighters at Collingwood Town Hall. He promised to respect, honour and value their work. He vowed to end the Liberal government’s war against them. He lied.

On the strength of Andrews’ promises, hundreds of firefighters gave up their weekends door-knocking in marginal seat electorates to help get rid of the anti-worker state Liberal government.

Steve Mundey, a member of the United Firefighters Union (UFU), was one of them. On the morning of 8 December, he was marching to state parliament with more than 1,000 firefighters to protest the Andrews government’s broken promises.

“We campaigned for them, we wanted the Liberal government out, they were hell bent on trashing and terminating every condition of employment for fire fighters”, he told Red Flag.

“We believed that they [the ALP] were going to be different, they have changed from being our friend to now being our adversary”.

Ridge, came into the rally from his station in Melton said the government had backtracked: “Everything that they have agreed to is now off the table”. Victorian firefighters have not had a pay rise since 2013.

Safety standards are also a key concern. “At the moment we are well under the international standard”, explained Ridge. “They want to go back to the dark ages – where the international standard for house fires is 11 we are running at 4. What they are compromising is my safety.”  

The UFU had an important win last year when it fought of an attempt by the Metropolitan Fire Brigade to scrap long-standing safety standards. The Andrews government is now trying to re-open that dispute.

Addressing the crowd on the steps of state parliament, secretary of the firefighters’ union Peter Marshall labelled Andrews’ betrayal a “disgraceful act”.