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Leeds rallies in support of striking firefighters

FIRE Brigades Union leader Matt Wrack rallied over 500 people at Leeds’s May Day demonstration on Saturday in support of members on strike. 

The city’s huge annual event to mark International Workers’ Day took place as firefighters walked out for the second day of their pensions fight. 

The Star revealed this weekend how Fire Minister Brandon Lewis provoked the strike by keeping improved pension plans secret. 

And Mr Wrack told trade unionists: ”We are not going to accept that if people’s fitness declines in their 50s, they face the risk of dismissal.

“We are not going to accept that fire-fighters must pay £4,000 a year into their pensions from a salary of £29,000.”

The rally’s headline speaker urged supporters to join firefighters on the picket lines. 

“Austerity is about robbing the majority to benefit the minority,” he added. 

“But it was the spivs in London who caused the economic crisis, not the people.”

A brass band had led the marchers through the city to Victoria Gardens for the rally, which heard a number of other rousing speeches. 

RMT rail union Paddington branch chair Alex Gordon paid tribute to the work of working class hero Bob Crow in fighting to maintain RMT members’ wages and conditions, and campaigning for a publicly-owned rail network.

Turning to international events, he also marked the death of 30 trade unionists killed on Friday when their building was set on fire by far-right extremists in Ukraine.

Sally Kincaid of the National Union of Teachers spoke of the immorality of 85 people being paid as much as half the world’s population.

Samantha Harrower, student and single parent, spoke movingly of a campaign to save three nurseries under threat from bosses of City of Leeds College, and Liz Kitchen, Leeds anti-bedroom tax campaigner, told how cash was being found for a new shopping centre in Leeds, when new social housing should be the priority.

In Halifax campaigners fighting to save the town’s accident and emergency unit demonstrated, and May Day rallies were held across the north, including a successful event in Sheffield.

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