Mr Blair, pay them their dues

[tumblingdown]

Those of you not in the UK may be unware but as of 6pm this evening the UK has no national fire service coverage. We are now reliant on a fleet of 50 year old vehicles that travel at a speed of 30 mph crewed by the Army.

I do not agree with trade unionism, however these guys should be paid. On average, a UK fireman is paid £6.50 per hour.

£6.50 per hour.

The UK goverment excuse that no goverment can except a 40% increase is flawed for the very simple fact that most essential public sector workers are underpaid in the first place (e.g. nurses and fireman).


The average pay for a US fireman is around $45k.



td.

[maxl]

Fireman are not the responsability of the cities in the UK ??

[Nightwalker83]

Originally posted by tumblingdown
Those of you not in the UK may be unware but as of 6pm this evening the UK has no national fire service coverage. We are now reliant on a fleet of 50 year old vehicles that travel at a speed of 30 mph crewed by the Army.

I do not agree with trade unionism, however these guys should be paid. On average, a UK fireman is paid £6.50 per hour.

£6.50 per hour.

The UK goverment excuse that no goverment can except a 40% increase is flawed for the very simple fact that most essential public sector workers are underpaid in the first place (e.g. nurses and fireman).


The average pay for a US fireman is around $45k.



td.

Strike?

[MasterBlaster]

Originally posted by tumblingdown

The average pay for a US fireman is around $45k.

td.

That's a very underpaid Firefighter. Most police officers in the US start off at minimum wage, though.

[siyan]

Originally posted by MasterBlaster
That's a very underpaid Firefighter. Most police officers in the US start off at minimum wage, though.

public service at minumum wage? thats harsh....youd think the govt would be more interested in protecting citizens.

[MasterBlaster]

They also forgot to mention that a large portion of the firefighters in the US make $0 a year as they are volunteers. They hold fundraisers and sell concert tickets to old washed up bands to afford to maintain their equipment. City Fire Fighters do OK though.

[MerrionComputin]

About half of UK firefighters are volunteers too.

[venerable bede]

£6.50 .......

Bloody hell thats £5.00 an hour more than me.

[GingerNut]

When you go for a job, any job, you are told what your wages will be and what way they increase over the years, or not. If you don't like the wages you either look elsewhere, or take the job and keep looking for something better.
These firefighters knew the score before they took the job. If they weren't happy with the wages, why did they take the job in the first place?
Fair enough, they should have been getting some sort of pay rise over the years, but to ask for 40% is a bit much. And now, because they aren't getting their way, they're holding the nation at ransom, and putting peoples lives at risk.

[tr0n]

£6.50 is what they get after tax though right? or is that because they work longer hours? anyway, they get about £21,000 before tax, which isn't a bad wage.

as far as i know, the govt. have offered an 11% increase, but they're being too stubborn and greedy to accept it.

[MartinSmith]

I read somewhere that they get 45 applicants for each position.

I would say there is an opportunity for cost cutting there.

[john tindell]

its really stupid though, because the politions can vote themselves a 40% pay rise, and 40% of what a polition earns is a lot more than 40% of a firemans wage.