Bethnal Green, Clerkenwell, Dockhead, Greenwich and Islington.
A well-attended and lively meeting of firefighters and residents in Bermondsey last month decided to oppose the loss of a fire engine from Dockhead fire station.
Some residents told of their own experiences of being caught in fires, particularly in high rise blocks. Firefighters responded that the times the fire authority expected engines to arrive at a fire did not take into account the existence of high rises, the five minute time scale was calculated for ground floors only, and therefore the authority had underestimated response times.
The meeting agreed to support a demonstration to the fire authority on March 17 from Westminster to the fire authority at Albert Embankment London, SE1the day the fire authority makes its decision. The residents also agreed to make a deputation to the fire authority, and to support more public meetings to engage * the support of more residents. Roland Rance The proposed merger between the TGWU, Amicus and the GMB unions may indeed create the biggest union in Britain.
Under present conditions, however, it is unlikely to be a militant union under lay control, but rather a New-Labour loyal, officer-led, body, more concerned with getting cheap insurance and credit cards for its members than with fighting for their jobs, pay and conditions.
Amicus has yet to conduct its first delegate conference since it was created by a merger between the old MSF and AEEU unions (in effect an annexation of MSF by the AEEU).
The new union has already absorbed the banking union UNIFI, and the printing GPMU, without any democratic discussion.
Within the GPMU over 50,000 retired members were excluded shortly before the ballot - four times the eventual majority in favour.
Since the merger, and despite the apparent election of a left general secretary and a nominal left majority on the NEC, the industrial record of Amicus has recalled the worst days of the anti-worker practices of the old EEPTU, which has long dominated the AEEU.
In one instance, General Secretary Derek Simpson personally instructed union officials to lead Amicus members across an official GMB picket line at. the new Wembley Stadium, after one official described workers he was supposed to represent as "disruptive and militant elements".
This incident led to a split in the Amicus left, with a majority supporting this scabbing, and the exclusion from the NEC "left" caucus of those (mainly SWP members) who supported the workforce.
Since the merger, Amicus members have lost control of their own political fund. Decisions are now taken on behalf of all members by those members delegated to local Labour Party GMCs. Those not in the Labour Party, or even those who are not GMC members, have no say.
Lay democracy is now further threatened by the proposal to scrap all existing branches, and to form large (2000 member) branches, based on members home address rather than their place of work.
This, if it goes through, will emphasise the union's decision to focus on its members as individual consumers of union-provided services, rather than as workers with collective interests and the need to organise together.
Unless the proposed new union is based on the principles of collective organisation and action, of lay democracy, and of mutual solidarity, it will be a further step backwards for millions of workers.
The left in Amicus must oppose this, and we must fight to regain control of our own union.