They Rescue People Not Banks!

There was great support in the sunshine at Western Fire Station, New Parks, Leicester from local people this morning. The 24 hour action was the longest so far in this dispute, but one passer-by suggested that maybe they need to stay out for longer to force the government to listen. The pickets agreed, saying that they needed to ramp up the pressure. They were also hopeful that they would be out on the 10 July to join the potential 1.5 million other workers on strike that day.

Later at lunchtime a packed open air rally was held in the city centre, a new and exciting departure for the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) in Leicester.

Support for the FBU, contrary to the double-dealings of the capitalist loving Labour Party, was needless to say forthcoming from both local and national trade unionists. To take just one example, Mark Serwotka, general secretary of the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS), said:

“PCS fully supports FBU members in stepping up their campaign against the minister’s intransigent refusal to negotiate. Firefighters have our full solidarity in opposing the government’s plans to make people work until they drop.”

Pickets remained strong across Leicester for the rest of the day, and at the time this article was written — in the early hours of the still sunny evening — workers at Hastings Road fire station talked about the need for working more closely with other unions in order to take united strike action. A much needed political action that firefighters at Hastings Road said they have been raising for some years now.