What a lot of spleen is being vented here!
FACT: An agreement was made to settle the last dispute. The employers, no doubt with the connivance of B.Liar have reneged on the deal. It’s not the fault of the firemen that the government is using the forces as a tool to drum up support for a battle. Let’s face it Bliar has had his war, a la Maggie and Falklands, and now he wants a good old fashioned confrontation with a wicked lefty nasty trade union, again a la Maggie and miners, to show what a strong leader he is in the lead up to next year’s elections. As to the idea that the firemen knew the wages/conditions when they signed up and why don’t they leave - well one could say the same for the people whining on these forum. I decided after 30 years of service life that I had had enough, was leaving and so braved the cold commercial world. Of course this comes with having to actually pay into my pension plan, payments which by the way have just doubled, only 4 weeks leave per year, no chance of NHS dentist so paying an arm and a leg for that, working for a firm that could go bust or lose important contracts and leave me without a job, etc. If you lot can’t recognise this confrontation as a device to have a big bad figure to paint Bliar in a good light then you are living in a dream world. If the job of a fireman is so good that they can sleep when on call over a night shift (as I recall many staff doing at Army/RAF bases for example in Ops) and drive a 3 yr old BMW on a window cleaning round then why not join them? By the way, to Jindabyne, why wait until the fireman/window cleaner goes on strike to dispense with his services. The man is obviously a bounder so shop him to DHSS, or would that mean you had to pay the full price to a genuine window cleaning firm?