November 11, 1977

LOCAL firemen were this week planning to give all-out support to the call for a national strike.

The 27 full-time firemen at the Redditch office were planning a round-the-clock picket of their Birmingham Road station and were expecting full support from the 18 part- timers attached to the station.

But part-time firemen at the Alcester and Studley stations, who are almost all members of the Fire Brigades Union, were due to meet on Wednesday night this week to discuss the situation.

As talks go on at a national level to prevent the strike - over a 30 per cent pay claim due to begin at 9am on Monday morning - local fire administrators are making contingency plans to deal with the situation.