The decisive victory of Matt Wrack - by 12,883 votes (63.9%) to 7,259 (36.1%) - in the ballot for the general secretary of the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) represents a big step forward for the union and the trade union movement in general.

Matt told The Socialist: "I'm delighted to have been elected. There are a number of challenges on the horizon, not least the battle on pensions and regionalisation of controls.

"Internally too, we have to do everything we can to bring about a fighting and democratic union. I'm looking forward to rolling my sleeves up and getting stuck into the work."

Matt's election should see the FBU take a firmer stand on vital issues like pensions and pay than it has done in the last year. The majority of the union leadership have preferred to attack and witch-hunt their own members rather than preparing a fight on these issues.

At the same time, the union conference was due to discuss the next step after its disaffiliation from Tony Blair's New Labour at its conference last year. A composite resolution - being moved by Socialist Party members from Northern Ireland FBU and seconded by London FBU - was set to call for the union to allow its regional and brigade structures to support candidates and parties outside of Labour. The union's executive council are opposing this democratisation of the union's political fund.

Socialist Party members will be verbally making the call for the FBU, along with other unions like the RMT railworkers' union who are also disaffiliated from Labour, to host a conference where unions can begin taking the first clear steps towards offering trade union backed candidates in elections as a step towards a new mass party of the working class.

At the end of April sacked airport shop stewards, Gordon McNeill, Madan Gupta and Chris Bowyer resorted to the desperate measure of a hunger strike to press their demand that their union, the T&GWU launch an inquiry into its handling of their dispute.

The shop stewards, with 20 other airport security workers, were sacked for striking against the poverty wages paid by their employer, ICTS. The pretext used to sack them was that the strike was "unofficial" and therefore illegal. However this was thrown out by an Industrial Tribunal last November which found against the employer on all counts.

At the Tribunal, further damaging information about the role of the T&GWU official responsible for the airport, Joe McCusker, came out. The airport workers have fought for three years to bring out the truth about the role of union officials at the time. In March they wrote a letter to the union asking that, in light of what was revealed during the Tribunal hearing, a disciplinary inquiry be set up to investigate the role that the officials played.

Because they received no response to this or to follow up letters, the three shop stewards decided to resort to a hunger strike. They occupied the foyer of Transport House and began the hunger strike on 29 April. They stayed on hunger strike until the following afternoon when, at a meeting with Regional Secretary, Mick O'Reilly, he agreed to recommend that the Executive grant an enquiry and that the three shop stewards should have the right to travel to London to present their case at the Executive meeting.

Gordon McNeill told The Socialist, "We are satisfied with this outcome. We have forced the union to listen whereas previously they were just trying to ignore us. One way or another we will ensure that the truth about the way we are treated will be brought out.

"We want to return the union to the members. Our next step will be to campaign as Socialist Party members in the union for the election of all officials and for an end to the present situation of jobs for life, big salaries, cars, expenses and golden handouts."