Gentle reminder to blow out those candles and joss sticks, extinguish those cigarettes and keep the cat indoors. (oh and dont leave the fairy ligths on or the chip pan unattended)

I am on “extra standby” this arvo for this.

did i miss something?

I’ve had words with the cat and she’s promised to not climb any tall tress this afternoon.

firepersons strike?

firepersons strike?

not in Scotland

What happens after lunch?

not in Scotland

I think Sweden has been spared too?

So, for the sake of clarity. For those of us living in a country where there is a firefighters strike this afternoon; there’s a strike, for those that don’t; there isn’t 😉

The thing with firemen going on strike for more money, again, is that when you really need help you can always rely on the army to provide underqualified, inexperienced, ill-equipped yet willing young lads to put themselves in far more danger than is necessary for a fraction of the pay.
😀

Aaah, OK. I’ll change my plans to see how many lit indoor fireworks I can get up my arse at 3pm then 🙂

Nice to see the fire and rescue authorities have found some spare cash to recruit and train spare fire personnel and fire engines, to work for 4 hour shifts then for zero hour contracts all for a 10 quid an hour,

oh and best not to use lifts for the 4 hours,drive a vehicle,or ride a horse into river as nobody is going to help you.

best not to use lifts for the 4 hours,drive a vehicle,or ride a horse into river

Damn, there’s the 3 things I had lined up to do this afternoon scuppered.

I’m going to take my chances with the driving and the lift. If you’re daft enough to ride a horse into a river you deserve to be pulled out by a farmer.

Does that mean that if someone sets fire to Bob Crow this arvo there will be nobody to put him out?

At work we were sent an email which actually included the phrase “be extra vigilant”. Normally i’m just vigilant and will leave fires to burn themselves out in my office, but as the firemen are on strike i’ll make sure i do something.

@CaptJon

😀

reminded me of IT Crowd and the soldering iron incident.

I think you should reply to the e-mail, interested to see if your HR dept is as humourless as ours.

Were a fire to start in Downing Street or the Palace of Westminster this arvo I think the dispute would be settled in the firefighters favour very quickly.

* wonders if the ’tiler’ will be popping round for a couple of hours this afternoon

CaptJon +1

Ours have told us to ‘take extra precaution’.

I thought this was a fair warning about the dangers of a high starch content meal, specifically related to a bean/pulse diet.

Which was timely, because that’s my lunch.

you can imagine all the local do gooders, helping to remove all the stiock to safety if a large sports or computer shop went up in flames, till the mangement wait till 16.00 hrs for the real firemen to arrive.

or workers who hate their jobs,wedging all the fire doors open, if a small fire is detected.

We’ve been told we’re not allowed to do any ‘hot work’, soldering or welding. Which, being a Project Monkey in the NHS, were obviously things I did all the time…

Pyro

*looks at username*

*moves matches to a safer place*

Our local bragade now have a Range Rover Sport for senior officers to knock about in. 😯

to knock about in.

Arsenal stylee?

Sbob – you really ought to look into these things before commenting, there will never be army cover again, they don’t have the resources (people or equipment), and the dispute is about pensions more precisely about not getting one if you become unable to work through getting hurt on the job (there are other bits but this is the main sticking point). And also, have you even the faintest idea how many of us are ex army/navy/RAF? Judging by the tone of your post you don’t.

I wouldn’t worry to much, be careful of course, but in the event of a major incident it is agreed that we would return to work, and as in previous times of dispute firefighters tend to leave picket lines when life is at risk i.e. persons reported fires, lines of communication are usually kept very open and we aren’t that callous dispite what right wing propaganda might lead you to believe.

quite a few serious rtc and car fires in the last few hours, on the bbc red button

Why does “fireman” have to be a job for life. Sucks that its a hard job that would be difficult to do when you are old but why is the alternative to being a fireman sitting on your arse* on a full pension?

Why can’t they get another job until their firemans pension kicks in at retirement age? That is what everyone else does when they are no longer able to do their job due to age.

*In reality they probably just revert to their second jobs while still getting the pension.

jfletch – it doesn’t have to be a job for life, and for some it isn’t, but then you wouldn’t join a pension scheme that you put 11-13% of your salary into every month if you weren’t planning on staying, because unlike some pension schemes you can’t transfer it it else where it just gets frozen until your 65 if you leave before the end of your service.

The concern for many of us is that were we hurt and unable to work as a firefighter at say 55, what are the chances of being re-employed, especially in an economic climate like todays for 10 years until our pension kicks in?

And for what it’s worth i don’t have a second job, neither do 80% of my current watch and neither did 100% of my last watch, some of course do but again another media myth that we all work 365 days a year and only care about money and not anything else 🙄

Complex issue but I wish the firefighters would stop the, “the public don’t want to be rescued by a 60 year old” argument

Are the Fire Service pension contributions actually being invested, or just being spent to meet current costs?

Will the changes being introduced affect existing/ accrued entitlement, or rights accrued going forward?

Anyone know?

It has occured to me that i may have come across very pro FBU and pro strike, i’m happy to openly say that i am anti strike and always vote against, and in fact if my employer wasn’t so vindictive and spiteful and didn’t take an extremely confrontational approach to industrial relations then i would leave the FBU in a heart beat. As it is, regretably, union membership is almost neccesary for the legal cover that it provides.

With regards to this dispute, my opinion fwiw, is that whilst changes to the pension scheme are a bitter pill to swallow considering what i signed up for (8 years extra service and considerably less when i do retire for me) they are neccesary and some of the changes do make sense, career average rather than final salary being just one example. However if there was some guarantee that anyone who could no longer work would receive some sort of pension and also that there would be no further detrimental changes to pensions in the future (it was only in 2006 that a new scheme was started for all new entrants on less favourable terms to “future proof” pensions, didn’t last long) then i’m pretty sure this dispute would be quickly resolved.

Of course nothing is going to get resolved unless the government can be bothered to talk to the FBU, at least in Scotland they can be bothered, hence why they were also ballotted but didn’t actually have to strike, and just so anyone whose bothered knows, the union has had a mandate to strike since 30th August and have been trying to have meaningful negotiations with the government since then, shame they can’t be bothered to address our genuine concerns, or even meet with our representatives.

Here endeth my mutterings, i’m sure Google can answer all of your questions (maybe) I have work to do. Sleep safe all.

So what now, a longer strike, more short strikes, or just talk to the employers and see what they can /are offering.

Either way some sort of fire cover must be maintained,or people will die,and that will just feed the need for privatisation,if thats not on the agenda now.

quite a few serious rtc and car fires in the last few hours, on the bbc red button

For the whole of England yeah. If we wen’t on strike for 4 minutes the Red button would explode.

Maybe the if the fat bloaters in the govt had to do some of the physical stuff that a fireman has to do, they might understand why it may not be a good idea to employ elderly people…

Maybe the if the fat bloaters in the govt had to do some of the physical stuff that a fireman has to do, they might understand why it may not be a good idea to employ elderly people…

You want Eric Pickles to give you mouth-to-mouth?

Bazz – Member

Sbob – you really ought to look into these things before commenting, there will never be army cover again, they don’t have the resources (people or equipment), and the dispute is about pensions more precisely about not getting one if you become unable to work through getting hurt on the job (there are other bits but this is the main sticking point). And also, have you even the faintest idea how many of us are ex army/navy/RAF? Judging by the tone of your post you don’t.

Apologies for the mild troll post, I was just trying to give a reason for some of the animosity directed towards firemen which always seems to puzzle you folk, a lot of it comes from squaddies, from my experience.

And with regards to the bit in bold, I’m not sure you can be so certain when the army have provided cover before but have never had the proper resources, equipment or training. 💡

Hmm, all seems a bit lacking in troll.

Firefighters.
The only workers who always quote their salaries after tax.

That’s better. 🙂