Some members may be aware that Fire Brigades Union comrades in the Merseyside fire and rescue service in the UK have been fighting retrenchments. Following the collapse of negotiations, Merseyside fire crews have voted in favour of strike action over cuts that will compromise firefighter and public safety. Read more…

The Department has sought today to unilaterally and without consultation remove Water Tanker appliances from Penrith and Dunheved Fire Stations. Read more…

A memo was circulated to W6 Station Commanders recently by management regarding the payment of meal and refreshment allowances. Not only did it contain highly offensive language it also implied a member could be open to disciplinary action for making a perfectly legitimate claim under our Award. Read more…

It emerged this week that the Department has recently conducted a training exercise on ANOTHER HIGHLY CONTAMINATED EX DEFENCE SITE and was planning to conduct further training at the site (ex Navy submarine depot, HMAS Platypus at Neutral Bay). According to reports tabled in Federal Parliament, this site is highly contaminated. Read more…

Further meetings between the Union, Department and the Dust Diseases Board (DDB) have been held to implement the four point plan that was thrashed out between the Union and Department (see our Notice dated 21 July 2006). The DDB is recognised as the pre-eminent body dealing with occupational lung diseases in NSW. Read more…

At 8:15 a.m. on August 6, 1945, the people of Hiroshima city in Japan became the first humans on the planet to pay the price of Nuclear Warfare. An atomic bomb was detonated some 600 meters above Shima Hospital vaporizing all those within a 1000 meter radius. Up to 90 000 men, women and children were slaughtered directly and hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians were maimed and crippled -some for generations.

The deliberate and indiscriminate targeting of civilian populations has long been recognized as a crime against humanity and cannot go unmarked. War for whatever purpose invariably targets working class people while those responsible walk free profiting from the horror and misery inflicted on those most vulnerable.

This year’s rally to mark the 61^st anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing will be held at

1pm Sunday 6th August in Hyde Park North. The focus of the rally is to draw the world’s attention to the re-establishment of a Nuclear Weapons program by the US government. The current debate about the establishment of a Nuclear industry in Australia and the inevitable proliferation of weapons of mass destruction should Australian Uranium be exported around the world.

www.HiroshimaDaySydney.org

Simon Flynn

State Secretary