Viewing Thread:
"Fire Strike - Vote Here"

Fact: It's not difficult to recruit Firemen. If they were given a big pay rise then that would be a cue for everybody else too. Taxes would rise dramatically and the economy would melt down. We would all be worse off.

I have two suggestions:

1. Train the armed forces to use up to date fire-fighting equipment and make it illegal for anybody to prevent the use of such equipment.

2. As Firemen have nothing to do except play darts for half their time, why not give them some more work. They could be the town watchers, pouring over cctv monitors to watch for traffic jams, fires and rowdy elements of society, and simply reporting events to the Police as necessary. That could be worth 5% on their pay. Of course they might have to be banned from doing second jobs during the day if they have to stay awake all night watching monitors.

These are exceptionally good and logical ideas. Maybe I should be a Governement adviser.

*_*

It was 4% now, with the rest to come somewhere down the line. Knowing government, that would put it somewhere between never and infinity.

that's probably just the union playing up their cause.

I heard 4%

Belldandy wrote:
> Govt: "4%, take it or leave"
> FBU: "But...."
> Govt: "4%, get lost while we vote ourselves another 35% increase
> yeah ?"
> FBU: "Okay...strike time"
> Govt: "Agh your all horrid union members, cease and desist
> because tony says so, and Mr "I need a Jaguar to go down the
> road".

They got offered 11%, which would put them on 23.5k. That is a respectable wage!!

Nor does he have heavy equipment on

Insane Bartender wrote:
> window cleaners are just as at risk as firemen walking rooftops.

Nonsense. The building a window cleaner works on isn't likely to collapse under/on top of him. He doesn't have fire raging all around him, or have the possibility of lung damage from smoke inhalation. Nor does he have to carry unconscious bodies from the building. Nor does he face the likelihood of being killed any moment by an exploding gas main.

Insane Bartender wrote:
> I think the firefighters, or at least their union, is as much to blame
> as anyone else.
>
> They are about as flexible as Belldandy's American patriotism.

lol :) The same can be said for the government;


Govt: "4%, take it or leave"
FBU: "But...."
Govt: "4%, get lost while we vote ourselves another 35% increase yeah ?"
FBU: "Okay...strike time"
Govt: "Agh your all horrid union members, cease and desist because tony says so, and Mr "I need a Jaguar to go down the road".

~~Belldandy~~

I think the firefighters, or at least their union, is as much to blame as anyone else.

They are about as flexible as Belldandy's American patriotism.

Having just seen the latest news bulletions - where;

The Government is hinting at legal action to prevent further strikes.
The Government is hinting it will use the normal fire equipment.
John Prescott is getting all agitated and threatening.
The Fire Brigades Union ejected the media from a meeting this morning

I can't help but feel this is rapidly spiralling out of control. If, because of the media, Fire Fighters lose public support then they're unlikely to give in and it will just intensify. I feel that it's okay for the government to order the military to take the regular fire appliances BUT that this could lead to something far worse happening if just one fire station shows reluctance to do this. All it takes is for one to start some kind of fight or do something and things will get 100 times worse.

Face it, the government is screwing this up big time. If they had any sense they'd do a deal agreeing to a pay rise in a couple of months time of about 25-30% in exchange for the strikes ending - except they wouldn't bother making it known to anyone but the FBU the pay rise would happen. Government doesn't lose face, FBU gets what it wants, and the country calms down again. Maybe :)

~~Belldandy~~

I largely agree with you view on the firefighter thing.

the 90% tax thing is a little harsh though.