London firefighters vote for strike action

[Standard Dave]

BBC News - London firefighters vote for strike action

London firefighters have voted in favour of strike action in protest at proposed changes to working conditions.
The Fire Brigades Union (FBU) said 79% of its members who voted had supported strike action.
The union said it had given London Fire Brigade until 1500 BST on Friday to drop plans or it would announce strike dates.
The dispute centres on plans to scrap current working hours and force fire crews to sign new contracts.

Fire fighters on strike, the first of many I expect with cuts in the public sectors

[Trojan 42]

It's not Public Sector cuts causing the problem. Their Boss wants to change their shifts from two days 9am to 6pm, followed by two nights of 6pm to 9am. He wants to have 12 hour shifts, which means that those that live outside London (as a lot do because of housing costs), won't have time to travel home and back between shifts. He also wants to be able to close some Fire Stations at night! Which would mean they couldn't meet their 8 minute maximum response time in some areas! If Appliances are deployed from a Station, another from a nearby Station moves over to be on standby, so that the response times are maintained. And when do most people die in fires? Oh yes, nighttime.

The guy has said that he plans to sack ALL London Firefighters and then re employ them on the New Contract. Man's a fool.

[depusm12]

That sounds plain crazy

[Trojan 42]

The first one day strike is this Saturday. The Army are now no longer to provide emergency cover (by law), so LFB have trained 700 people to man 29 fire appliances! Yes, that'll do it. 29 vehicles to replace over 500, and none of them specialist rescue units. Genius.

[Motorwaycop]

There goes my overtime then, normally when the squirters go on strike we get to do all the escort of the military vehicles.
Certainly up here in Ruralshire the last time I did it there was only one call out in the 12 hr shift and that was a hoax.
I doubt the military has the capacity to step in at the moment anyway.

[Trojan 42]

No you're safe Motorway. It's a London thing, the Fire Chief has said he will sack all that don't sign a new contract. That's no way to keep staff loyal. They are not even striking for more pay, just to keep what they have.

He also wants them to be more 'productive'! They are a fire and rescue service, how the hell can they be more productive?

[Motorwaycop]

carry matches?

[Trojan 42]

carry matches?

You could be on to something there. And now it's starting to get a bit icy, they could squirt some water on the roads near junctions and bends. That'll get 'em some more work too.

[Tango Zulu 22]

carry matches?

Funny you should mention that, a few years ago a couple of retained Trumpton in Sheepshire ( you know, just next door ) decided to do just that, liberal use of the aforesaid lucifers equalled extra callouts.

Till they got nicked that is......