Monday, November 01, 2010

Fire Brigade Rip Off Still On

Private Sector 15% unionised ,Public Sector 66%. Public Sector average earning (2009) £539 , private sector £465 and even then the Public Sector take was rising at 3.15% to a private sector`s 1%.
Union members are more likely to be owner occupiers and , as we know cannot be fired. Nice life .Firemen are on £33,000 basic up to £50,000 with the bits and overtime , and we know how that works . They work two nine hour day shifts and t6wo 15 hour night shifts followed by four days off .1780 of them hold second jobs and above half commute. They get a London weighting of £5021, depite this and can retire at 50 on full penions with thirty years service .
Last year out of a work force of 5600 in London only 15 quit and there were 26 applicants for each post. Fancy
The risks they run are statistically far lower than those taken by any construction worker and not remotely comparable wit the ordinary soldier who gets sod all.
Worse than all this is the fact they are making fires worse . This year Tony Mc Guirk (Chief Fire Officer Merseyside) , said " We`ve got some bone idle people in the public sector ". The TUC went nuts but the fact is this man started with 2140 fires and 15 deaths in his area and last year had 1300 and 7 respectively
In the meantime they had reduced the numbers from 1400 to 850.
We have to do more with less , everyone else has to, but so long as the Unions stand in the way we are all going to be ripped off and badly served .
Who is going to have the guts to take on the big vested interests , Unite , GMB. They have just bought their puppet Red Ed but thus far Posh Dave is bravely running away.

11 comments:

Old BE said...

So are you saying they should not be allowed to strike, or that the LFB should press on despite the strike?

Old BE said...

And do you think that firefighters are more or less of a ripoff than, say, doctors?

Newmania said...

In some ways they are too easy a target. Doctors are obviously over rewarded and I feel myself that that an unpopular working class strike is too easy a target

Noenthess there they are,taking the piss. The Unions should be broken up or subject to orders

Electro-Kevin said...

It's worse than you think. The two night shifts are spent in bunks. They are told to sleep when they are not called out - which means they are only on a two day week for the vast majority of the time.

The two day shifts are mostly spent doing drills and playing volley ball.

I see no problem with people spending their London weighting on a commute if that's what they want to do with it. So long as they get to work on time. And £33k is not a living wage in London. It's a fraction of what you can get on the dole. I doubt many of those supplementing their earnings are living the high life.

Old BE said...

And them being awake while there are no fires on would make a difference how?

Old BE said...

£33k not a living wage?

EK what planet are you on? My first job after University paid £17k. I didn't die, funnily.

You are right, £33k doesn't buy a nice house in a nice area near the centre of town, but that's not quite the same thing, is it?

Electro-Kevin said...

Try raising a family on it, Blue.

I could not move back to London for less than £60k pa without suffering a drastic drop in standard of living... and I don't live any better than a council house chav.

Electro-Kevin said...

I'm not saying they should be awake, btw. Just that more often than not ... they aren't !

Old BE said...

EK, I'm not saying it's a lot of money, but it IS the median wage in London. That means that 50% of people ARE raising a family on £33k or less.

It would all be a lot easier for earners if we weren't handing such huge dollops of cash over to those who don't even pretend to have a job. Let's sort that out first.

Electro-Kevin said...

A lot of it depends on when you settled in London.

If you'd bought a house in '91 and were raising a family of median wages then no problem. If you were just starting out with a couple of young siblings it would be nigh on impossible on £33k.

This is where I suspect a lot of personal debt has been accrued. Not only through people being acquisitive but those merely trying to maintain some standard of living which resembles anything like decent.

The fire brigade in London is over staffed. There needs to be a merger between the LFB and the LAS. A combined service of fire fighting, rescue and first aid.

Old BE said...

I've actually changed my mind on the strike. What the FBU are asking for is special treatment. No organisation can promise its staff "no reorganisation, no productivity increases, no changes in conditions, ever", which is basically what the FBU is asking for.

Blog Archive