IN SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA, TODAY, THE NEW SOUTH WALES FIRE BRIGADE UNION held a rally at the state parliament building while it was in session.

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The firefighters are outraged at the meagre pay raise that they are being offered, 2.5%, whereas the state politicians just gave themselves a 6.7% raise and the state’s budget has a half-billion dollar surplus.

Yesterday the firefighters announced that they would hold a two-hour work suspension from noon to 2 pm today.  When the noon hour arrived, leaving skeleton crews manning the stations, over 400 FF’s climbed into 100 fire engines and drove them all to the parliament building where they all sounded their sirens in protest.

Later in the day the Industrial Relations Commission scheduled a “conciliation meeting” for next Thursday.  The union agreed to not hold any more demonstrations before then.  But they are threatening to take the job protests statewide if no suitable settlement is found.

The Sydney Morning Herald has the STORY.
The Age has MORE.

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