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THE FIRE brigade employers showed at the start of this week that they have little intention of seeking compromise with firefighters and control room staff. The employers reneged on a promise to the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) that they would extend the legal deadline for calling strikes while talks take place. They retreated on Monday.

THE GOVERNMENT is trying to break the firefighters. Everyone needs to fight to make sure its assault fails. The threats and intimidation came as firefighters struck for 48 hours this week and planned another strike starting from 9am on Saturday.

FIREFIGHTERS and staff in control rooms cheered this week when news came through that their FBU union executive had refused to bow to New Labour's bullying and was going ahead with planned strikes. Rank and file feeling outweighed heavy pressure on the executive members to end all the action and get trapped in talks that were going nowhere fast.

"IT'S A fight on two sides now, and everybody knows it. It's not just over pay. I've just seen Prescott on the TV and he's out to break our union and slash the UK fire service." That's what Mark Barter from the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) in Bedfordshire told Socialist Worker as firefighters and control staff launched their third strike on Tuesday.

BIRMINGHAM: Members of the FBU and other trade unionists lobbied the appeal by FBU activist Steve Godward in Birmingham last week against his sacking. The union sees what has happened to Steve, who also stood as a Socialist Alliance candidate at the general election, as a clear case of victimisation. The procedure at the appeal confirmed that. It found Steve guilty and jumped straight to upholding his sacking without even hearing the mitigation.

RENEWED determination swept through fire stations and control rooms as members of the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) heard that their union has called a snap strike on Tuesday. Some 100 FBU brigade secretaries and other officials met at the TUC headquarters on Friday of last week.

THE SACKING of Hampshire Fire Brigades Union (FBU) activist Simon Green the week before Christmas is another sign that some chief officers and fire authorities are already going on the offensive. He was sacked under capability procedures that are not nationally agreed. "The case has national significance," says Lud Ramsey of Hampshire FBU.

TALKS BETWEEN the Fire Brigades Union (FBU), local employers and ACAS were due to begin this week. The FBU has called two 48- hour strikes for 28 January and 1 February.

FIREFIGHTERS AND control room operators enter the new year with the stakes in their pay dispute higher than ever. The government has rammed home its determination to impose the swingeing attacks on conditions, jobs and fire cover contained in the Bain review. The Fire Brigades Union (FBU) is committed to talks with the employers, beginning next week, and to two 48-hour strikes from 28 January and 1 February should those talks fail.

BREAKING national conditions and fire cover standards. A "pay as you go" fire service. That's what the 160 pages of the Bain review into the fire service, published this week, amounts to. Talks between fire service employers and the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) are scheduled for early January. But Prescott says he will impose Bain's assault anyway.

CHEERS WENT up in Hyde Park on Saturday as Fire Brigades Union (FBU) national official John McGhee announced, "20,000 people have marched today." The rally was the culmination of a determined march through central London by firefighters, control staff, their families and other trade unionists.

"MOST FBU members are sick to death with New Labour," says Paisley firefighter Billy Coates. "I'd say the majority in Scotland are now withdrawing from funding the Labour Party. On my station it's 100 percent."