Fire Cover

[ORAC]

I'm old enough to remember the last fire strike and all the fun and games. How old are the Green Goddesses now?

Still, I suppose it will give the fire crews something to do while everyone else is away for the winter. :D

The Times - 16 August:

Troops get set for fire crews strike
By Jill Sherman, Whitehall Editor

HUNDREDS of troops are to be trained as firefighters this month in preparation for a possible strike by 50,000 firefighters, whose union is demanding a 39 per cent pay rise to take minimum pay to £30,000.

The Ministry of Defence said yesterday that 650 personnel from the three services would be trained for ten weeks to use breathing apparatus and specialist equipment, starting at the end of this month. The newly trained personnel would be deployed in addition to existing MoD fire rescue teams, comprising thousands of troops, to give emergency cover if the Fire Brigades Union goes ahead with a strike, probably in October.........

[Ed Winchester]

I'm old enough to remember the last fire strike and all the fun and games.

Unfortunately, that doesn't make you very old at all, ORAC! The military did the biz in July 2001 when the Merseyside firefighters went on strike, and also in Essex in 1998.

That aside, I have nothing constructive to add. :p

[ORAC]

Izza a fair cop. I meant the last big one, in 1977?

When the boys rescued the little old lady's cat from a tree, had tea, then drove over it in front of the press as they left. And that one's not an urban legend. :D

[WhichWay?]

Unfortunately that is not all that is being asked of the services! There are allegedly 18,000 personnel being put on standby to provide drivers, breathing apparatus operators and monitors, vehicle operators. There are 4,000 personnel alone from the RAF. The standby commitment is to cover until Feb next year - looks like we will be very short of people if we go on a Christamds holiday to somewhere sunny.

How are we supposed to conduct operations, let alone train, if all of our personnel are being pulled for jobs which the core manpower requirement does not allow for such as this and station guarding?

WW

[STANDTO]

RAF 1988 - 90 ISH THOUSAND

RAF 2002 - 50 ISH THOUSAND


perhaps someone might realise now exactly why we had an 'overstaffed' ( and I use the term loosely) Armed Services!

[canberra]

how will we cope? easy first all reservists will be called up. second all the civvy mod firemen will be used at flying stations and the "officer" firemen will be on the pumps. dont forget that during the last national strike in 77 the amount of fires reported dropped dramatically. as a final point why have the fire service still got the right to strike? i know that the fbu is a very left wing union but im suprised maggie scrap their right to strike.