Solidarity 019, 6 December 2002

By the FNPBI

Local firefighters support groups
Battersea
Contact: aiden@respectwork.org.uk or 0208 682 4224.

Birmingham
The Birmingham Fire Fighters Support Committee has divided its activities into constituency support groups. To find the contact for your local group ring Jim on 0121 771 0871.

By Janine Booth, Political Officer, RMT London Transport Regional Council

By Charlie McDonald, PCS DWP East London branch secretary

By a Unison member

UNISON members in West Yorkshire Fire Authority are facing a dispute with their employers, in what could be the start of an employers' offensive in the fire service strike.
The dispute arose when they were instructed to attend Carlton Barracks in Leeds to carry out maintenance on reserve fire appliances, which had been secretly removed from the Authority's HQ over the weekend.

By Olivier Rubens

By Yassmine Mather

Iranian students have called for a rally against "despotism and outdated concepts of religion" this Saturday despite a government ban on all student demonstrations. Tehran university students have said they want to press on with a rally to mark national student day on 7 December.
The day marks events in the bloody 1953 repression of student protests, when during demonstrations against a visit by then-US vice-president Richard Nixon (a guest of the late Shah) three students were killed.

By Alan Clarke

Survey: the civil service
Over four percent but still low paid
By a civil servant

In the case of the firefighters the Government say that there can be no increase in the local authorities' pay budget above 4% unless there are significant (in their case drastic) changes in working practices.

They give the impression that the rest of the public sector has had to make the link between modernisation and pay increases.

New talks, but is the Government listening?
Jock Munro, FBU Scotland