Hi,

 

Most people know that I work as a FireFighter and if anybody wants to ask me questions about the strike, feel free.

 

The current state of play with a firefighter is that they clear £46 a day, most of my colleagues want to be able to afford to buy their own home and support their Families without relying on income support. I like many others have to depend upon other forms of income, (hence the reason why I can afford to run more than one car).

 

If anybody wants to, feel free to contribute any wind ups, insults and other distractions to the real issue, LOL, I've got some Hope!!

 

Mark

If your Fire-Station caught fire, would you put it out or call the Army.

If you put it out would you be braking your picket line?

Ok is your other job a rent boy?as I have been told it pays very well.

cheerZ

Macca;)

EEEEEEEERRRRRRR dunno bob!

 

I thought I recognised your motor Signor Kit Kat ;)

 

Make sure your fuel lines are secure on your finger of four, you don't want that going up with the old green buckets on duty.

 

LOL

good luck mark! :)

 

hope you get a good result out of this. youve got my support (fwiw :rolleyes: )

 

you guys deserve a decent pay rise.

I'd like to ask you a question, but first off let me say what a great job you do and this is not to be taken personally and for you to fly off the handle!

Here goes....... when you started the job you knew what the pay was, its not like they've suddenly reduced it. I'm not saying you don't deserve more cos you do. So the pay isn't increasing at the same rate as inflation, but whose is? Jesus man, its NO pay rise or some pathetic 2% a year for the rest of us from what I can work out. I don't think you should be allowed to strike, its blackmail, plain and simple and putting people's lives at risk to boot. Is this the ABSOLUTE ONLY way you can be heard? If you cast your mind back to when you were first told you had the job, you must have been over the moon? Where is that enthusiasm now? I feel you are shitting on the people you wanted to help when you first started. No one becomes a fireman for the money man, try a square recruitment consultant for that, it must be for your own personal drive to help people? I know you gotta live, pay the mortgage etc but we all have!

As I said this is not directed personally to you, I don't even know you.

Take it easy and good luck with a resolve.

James,

 

some people do a job for the job itself, not for the money, but the money is still important.

 

All of the public services (fire, police, ambulance, nurses) are underpaid.

 

If noone took the jobs because the money was bad, we would have none of these people to save our lives.

 

There is no way you can buy a house or flat, especially in london, on the wages of those jobs. Therefore they have to move out of the area just to live.

 

Then, whats the point of commuting into london for that sort of money, when you can do an identical job in the town you have moved to ?

 

If you are in a well paid industry, then you dont understand what its like at the lower end of the pay scale. Especially in and around London.

 

These are people with familes and dependants, working with great responsibility and purpose, for the sort of salary i was earning when i first started in IT, and when i had no house to pay for, let alone wife and kids to support.

 

Successive governments (they are all to blame) have cut back too much where it matters, rather than addressing where all of the money really goes to.

 

Too many scroungers, freeloaders and fraudsters draining the money that should go to these services.

 

And to many other "focus groups" and "organisations" that get funded in mistaken political correctness and ethnic minorities that should fund themselves like most of the more important charities have to.

 

imho

I for one agree that you should be paid more, I was shocked when I heard you only got paid 24k a year, I was always under the impression that you got around £33k a year

 

 

But I don't think an 8 day strike should be permitted. Two days is fine and you have have got people thinking more about your cause, it has probably helped fire prevention as well as I bet a lot of people are going to be more careful in the future, we made a point that all our smoke alarms were working yesterday.

 

The army simply cannot do your job though with their equipment, if a 8 day strike goes ahead I am in favour of them crossing the picket lines to commandeere equipment, just as that is to long to put the general publics safety at risk.

 

Good luck though, I really hope you get more money, your union bosses need sorting out though, they sound like the lefties of the 50's and 70's

Waaaaaaa,

 

I have to battle with the London Underground every day. Piccadilly line wasn't running at all yesterday. :(

 

Having said that, I've gotta lotta sympathy and respect for the fire-fighters. I think everyone agrees that it should never have come to a strike, and I imagine that most people would agree that the fire-fighters deserve more spondoolies.

 

I'm not sure where it's going to go from here. It's pretty bad though - actually grizzling about my commute to work is a little pathetic considering some of the other consequences of this action!

 

Russ.

Craig,

 

I agree with your points totally, all the public services are underpaid, but I still stand by my points, especially the one about they knew the wages before they started. I am not in a very well paid job and at the age of 30 after renting for a few years am living with my parents!! 3x my salary will get me nothing where I live (Beckenham). So I sympathise with the fire service but disagree about the strike.

On another note-once you're a member do you not get notification of a reply to your post via e-mail?

keep up the good work-this place has helped me out SO MUCH!

Originally posted by james300

Craig,

On another note-once you're a member do you not get notification of a reply to your post via e-mail?

keep up the good work-this place has helped me out SO MUCH!

 

only if you click the box to enable email notification when you post on a thread.. ;)

Duh.......... just seen that, cheers.

Now that I've got your attention-what did you think about getting too much for free here? I think it should be a read only thing till you get some wonga! what % of members have subscribed? I know, a limit of 10 posts before you gotta pay.

Im with you 100%.

 

A teacher who is just still a normal teacher after working for 10 years gets £30,000

A Police Constable who is just a PC after 10 years gets paid £31,000

A firefighter who is still a normal firefighter after 10 years will get £21,000

 

Doesnt seem right does it.

 

 

A civilan runs into a burning house saves some one, they are called a hero.

A Police Officer runs into a burning house and saves someone, they are called a hero and get a medal for action beyond the call of duty.

A Fire Fighter runs into a burning house and saves some one, its called doing thier job.

 

 

With you 100%.

 

How ever the press seem to be turning againt the cause at the moment. Yesterday the head lines where 3 people died because of the strike when there is no proof that these people would have been alive if they work working.

I know for a fact that 2 of the deaths where old people and the green godesses got there before the police did. They entered the house straight away and found that the people had died.

 

 

 

With you all the way James.

Good luck.

 

Stuart

Where did you get the figure of £31,000 for Police Officers?

Maybe in Central London,but the rest of the country it's£25,000 thats including the Home Counties.

All our emergency services deserve more money.

But good old Tone and co would rather spend it on so called asylum seekers(illegal immigrants)and other hair brained ideas.

The government needs to talk with the Fire Unions boss and come to some agreement over a realistic settlement.

From what I've seen the Firemen dont want a strike,they want to do their job.But unfortunately their union leader seems to think he's Che Gavarra(if thats how its spelt!).

Lets hope this can be sorted ASAP,before there's a war or a terrorist attack!Otherwise this country will be stuffed,with no firemen and most of our troops manning greengoddess's.

F.T.

Ummm, read this and decided initially not to reply as the topic is one that will get right up people's noses whichever side they are on. However as I have an opinion here goes, light blue touch paper and stand well back, actually further back than normal as the strike is still on and I dont want a paratrooper giving me mouth to mouth. Firemen do a job few people in this country would/could do, not just because it is dangerous but because of the things they have to see and deal with everyday. However if they don't want to do the job they joined the fire service to do at the pay they are getting then they should leave and get an different job, like the rest of us have to do if we are unhappy with our jobs. My understanding is that there is always a big queue of people trying to get into the Fire Service whenever they recruit so if some firemen leave then replacing them with people who want the job for that money should not be that great a problem. If not enough people apply for the jobs then the employers have to amend the pay or conditions in order to get people to apply (simple case of supply/demand economics). Firemen took on the job knowing the what the pay was and if anyone else tried this tactic with their company they would not get much out of it. As Firemen are protectors of the populations safety they should not have the right to strike and put people at risk of their lives for the sake of money, that is immoral and I think that they are wrong doing it. They should be paid a minimum £30k but should then lose their right to strike in future and have a powerful independent parliamentary lobby group set up to back their rights/pay/etc. and their pay should be matched to a commensurate rank in something like the civil service that gets automatic rises so that they do not lose ground in future years. Lastly who gives the firemen the right to strike when we do not provide the same right to our service men and women ( A Para gets a basic salary of £18Kpa and get the opportunity to be shot at all over the world, work 24 hour days under incredibly bad conditions and not allowed to strike). Again IMHO and not withstanding that I wouldn't do the job for any amount of money and have always been more than happy to support the firemen in their charity work and other fund raising. This argument is also close and personal to me as I have relatives who are currently serving and retired from the fire service.

Even though I think they're worth more and it takes guts etc how about the laws of supply and demand? Isnt it a job with serious amounts of job satisfaction and gives a buzz? You get to play cards, train, side down poles like a pole dancer drive flat out with sirens going!! Get serious respect.

 

Seems to me there's also a line of guys trying to join. A mate of mines son took 18 months to get in and he was just out of the marines. Plus they are most womans fantasy and you can keep your helmet on in bed!.

 

Dont you also have one excellent protected pension at an early age unlike those of us in the private sector who look like having no pension at all unless they are already 39 years into a final salary scheme.

 

Then there was the cracks I heard about leaving and becoming a £30k pa train driver but theres a queue for that as well!

 

Plus good old labour govt with their recent big pay rise is already trying to shaft us all with more taxes, more national insurance, less pension, extra tuition fees for the students blah de blah and they dont even have the costs for the firemen in their budget. Anyone left in the private sector will have to carry these extra costs. And we dont have any manufacturing left no wonder we want to arrange a war with Iraq to take our minds off things!

 

Thats what happens when your Z runs fine - you have to think about reality.

 

Willie

A very very good friend of mine who is a fully qualy cisco engineer earning a small fortune in London has decided to leave his 60k+ job per annum to become a firefighter again? i think that says it all regarding how exciting/rewarding the job is.

They are worth the extra money, but me ... striking is a form of blackmail and i dont really agree with it.

Regarding applications i thik they had just over a 1000 jobs available and 23000 aplications :eek:

(figures subject to the diciplanery commitee on firework and firefighters jobs comittee:p )

So the pay can't be THAT bad if 23 thousand people want to do it!

Originally posted by SRRAE

I know for a fact that 2 of the deaths where old people and the green godesses got there before the police did. They entered the house straight away and found that the people had died.

 

I don't think this is true. One of the deaths (an elderly lady) was quite near me and she actually died in the ambulance on the way to hospital. I think this makes it inconclusive as to whether the strike was a factor in her death. I simply post this because I expect that Stuart's post will have been based on a press report which was inaccurate - so no disrespect to Stu !

 

Like so many of these things, press reporting is an influence on us, even when we try not to let it be.

 

This is a seriously difficult issue. All I hope is that frank views can continue to be expressed on here without slagging off (and it's great to see that happening so far).

 

Dave

Firefighters do deserve everything that they are asking for, and then some.

 

I used to do pub relief all around England, and the worst thing was when the local Firemen would come in at the end of a shift, as they walked through the doors you could tell what sort of time they had had. After one of these dreadful evenings they all walked in and you could see it was a bad one, I just used to line up the beers and chasers and then walk away, because they had just taken 3 tiny dead childrens bodies out of a house, their parents had left them and gone out to the pub.

 

I could not in a million years ever cope with that, and neither could a lot of others.

 

I also worked there when the riots in Handsworth took place, the Firemen were stoned, had rocks thrown at them and beaten.

 

These are people who give without thinking, they rescue others without wondering if it is the right thing to do. They are HERO'S through and through.

 

THEY DESERVE EXTRA MONEY, because all to often they die at an early age, from another persons stupidity.

 

If MP's took a tiny pay cut all the rescue services would get the extra money that they so rightly deserve.

 

 

Hugs and kissses

 

 

Wendy

 

P.S. One of the elderly people lived a short distance from our home, and I drive past evey day.:( :(

Fkin MP's voted themselves a 50% pay increase last week if I'm not mistaken. Takes the p1ss.

Just to remind you all that it isn't the Government who pay the Fire Service....It's you, through your Council Tax!

If you can afford to pay all public service workers extra through your local levy,then fine!

Just remember that if public sector wages increase dramatically,then so will inflation and therefore retail prices etc.

Hope you are all in well paid jobs with index linked pay rises and pensions to cope with the increases!....Coz I work long hours, 6 days a week and I want a 40% pay increase too !! :D

Well that's OK IF you deserve it.

 

Anyway, IMO this is not about a 40% pay rise it's about catching up after being screwed for the past 10 years.

 

BTW I'd like a 40% increase, but I'll be lucky if I get 2% this year !

Originally posted by AndyP

Well that's OK IF you deserve it.

 

 

 

BTW I'd like a 40% increase, but I'll be lucky if I get 2% this year !

 

FFS! ROFLLMFAO Andy you are on far too much money anyway!

 

Do you not feel guilty opening your wage packet even now?

A better idea would be to give all Firemen well paid IT jobs and make those who are currently IT/recruitment consultants/advertising executive wimps fight fires instead!...Then they would actually EARN their livings for a change!! :D :D

Mark Help!

 

My chip pan is on fire so I decided to put it out with a bucket of water and it's ruined the chips! (house is on fire too)

 

Can you come round quick cos the local squadies are out on the piss instead of manning the engines...

 

Get in the fastest of your Z's mate!