One minute it's the only thing the press are talking about, the next minute it's forgotten history. Please could someone let me know what's going on! Did they give up in the end?

As far as I know any strikes have been put off for now but I'll ask my boyfriend

I think the fire chief realised how rediculous their pay demands were and backed down.

When did the fire brigade adopt the name "Firefighters?
They used to to be known as "Firemen"
Are they riding on the coat tails of the Hero's of Sept 11th New York?
If the Army went on strike, would they volunteer to go to Iraq with two weeks training on 30 year old equipment, while the Army made televised comments on their success?

Well said sheffco, I think their demands are ridiculous, if the job is so poorly paid why are there so few (if any) firemen leaving the service, they are reasonably well paid even without their 'second job' incomes, they get early retirement and an index linked pension - Joe Public does not !

Right on Michael_W
I voted with my feet years ago, and joined the oil companies.
I did courses on Fire fighting, escape and evasion (H2S Gas), breathing apperatus, para medic, went through the smoke tunnels at Norwich Fire Training Centre, aircraft handling, permit to work certificates, PTF, and personal survival.
If I didn't think I was paid enough, I informed the company and put myself on the market. - - If you want the income - - you weigh the disadvantages.

Correct me if Im wrong, but, Firemen do 4 on 4 off, giving them about 184 days of work a year. They are allowed to sleep half that time, say they manage to sleep for half of the time they are allowed to sleep, so knock off 46 days. Giving us 138 days work. But they have holidays as well Im sure. 20 is the minimum plus 7(?) bank holidays. Which gets it down to 111 days work a year. Now I realise they may bot get to have actual bank holidays off, but they probably get the days they have off moved or something...

Joe public can expect to do 5*52 days, minus the holidays which is 233 days. So I think the fireman should get £30K for a FULL yeas work, which is (111/233)*£30K=£14,291.80 plus a little bit since they put their lives at risk, 20% sounds fair to me, giving them a grand total of £17,150.20.

I dont mind an increase in their salary if it comes with an increase in their hours...

thing is, the firemen agreed to the pay and responsibilitys when they joined, if you went on strike demanding more, just cos your Union leader says so, you'd get the sack.

the only real winner out of it is gilchrist, as hes getting a 6 figure sum for his pay (£100000+) and a new SAAB :roll:

Good one Richard

Originally posted by "sheffco"

Good one Richard
Sheffield's finest maths graduate :lol: :wink:

Why don't you push off with your stupid expression! :D

The fire fighter's should accept the increase they have been offered and keep on working,having said that everyone in this country should get the same increase.
That includes the judiciary,doctors,civil servant's.M.P.s.
cabinet minister's, police,Prime minister, everyone and when the total workforce see's it is fair, then all would be satisfied. There will alway's be strike's, when a few at the top are lining their pocket's at the expense of the majority. :D

Originally posted by "richard"

Correct me if Im wrong, but, Firemen do 4 on 4 off, giving them about 184 days of work a year. They are allowed to sleep half that time, say they manage to sleep for half of the time they are allowed to sleep, so knock off 46 days. Giving us 138 days work. But they have holidays as well Im sure. 20 is the minimum plus 7(?) bank holidays. Which gets it down to 111 days work a year. Now I realise they may bot get to have actual bank holidays off, but they probably get the days they have off moved or something...

Joe public can expect to do 5*52 days, minus the holidays which is 233 days. So I think the fireman should get £30K for a FULL yeas work, which is (111/233)*£30K=£14,291.80 plus a little bit since they put their lives at risk, 20% sounds fair to me, giving them a grand total of £17,150.20.

I dont mind an increase in their salary if it comes with an increase in their hours...

They negotiate higher than they wanted...it makes sense...the theory is that they would accept 16% but what the governemtn is offering is discraceful and want to cut jobs as well. I think the firemen are under appreciated and people don't realise how highly they are trained. I mean, it's not until you actually need them that you appreciate what they do. As for the holidays etc....don't forget they guard you while you sleep. There won't be many fire stations that have no call outs through the night. a couple of stations I know the firemn are out everynight.

Of course the Government propaganda seems to be working and the public support seems to be diminishing now. I think the only way for them to conduct any strike is to go for all out strike. Not this weekly strike rubbish.

As a young firefighter (not fireman there are several females in this job) i do find some of the opinions on this subject quite disturbing. We are constantly being compared to the Army and everyone has the opinion that we knew what the job entailed before we joined. This isnt stickly true, seeing as though i have only been in the job 18 months and the job has changed dramatically! having previously spent 3 years as a firefighter in the RAF i can understand both sides of the argument. Since some of my colleagues first joined up (30 years ago) the job and workload has changed dramatically and continues to do so with the changes in society. The latest in these is the new threat of chemical attacks. As a part of the governments plan against these they have made the fire service the leading authority in dealing with these.
Most of you are probably aware the strikes are still ongoing but as a gesture, to say how serious we as a union to getting to a settled agreement we have put off any strike action untill 16th of march

does richard not know that our dream 4 days on 4 days off is not actually as good as it sounds because it requires you to work weekends bank holidays (christmas day this year :( ....) it entails a 49 hour shift and for our 1st day off we have already worked 9 hours of it! and as for all this sleep we get i really feel refreshed after an average of 5/6 shouts a night!!

Originally posted by "joe"

does richard not know that our dream 4 days on 4 days off is not actually as good as it sounds because it requires you to work weekends bank holidays (christmas day this year :( ....) it entails a 49 hour shift and for our 1st day off we have already worked 9 hours of it! and as for all this sleep we get i really feel refreshed after an average of 5/6 shouts a night!!

Also Joe, I am interested, what is your opinion on how the strike has been conducted, looking back now at the way public support seems to be fading away, don't you think it might have been better to go for "all out strike"? Personally I think this is a far more effective way of conducting a strike.

I agree with you about the 'all out strike' policy,i know this would have put pressure on the government to sort it out by certain parties one of them being the national union of insurers who have informed us that the last quarter in 2002 was the worst on reccord since the 2nd world war,the normal quarter being about £53m and this one being £152m i cant really see them standing this without putting premiums up can you? Put this on to the other costs which the strike has incurred and you start to think old 2 jags decision not to get out of bed and give us our %16 which we had agreed with our employers might of been a bad one!!!

What happened to it?
is it about to kick off again in Manchester?

Unions taking the p*** under a Labour government. No surprises there. I've heard the train workers are likely to strike nationally too. Lets hope Blair can keep the deviants under control.

Originally posted by richard
Correct me if Im wrong, but, Firemen do 4 on 4 off, giving them about 184 days of work a year. They are allowed to sleep half that time, say they manage to sleep for half of the time they are allowed to sleep, so knock off 46 days. Giving us 138 days work. But they have holidays as well Im sure. 20 is the minimum plus 7(?) bank holidays. Which gets it down to 111 days work a year. Now I realise they may bot get to have actual bank holidays off, but they probably get the days they have off moved or something...

Joe public can expect to do 5*52 days, minus the holidays which is 233 days. So I think the fireman should get £30K for a FULL yeas work, which is (111/233)*£30K=£14,291.80 plus a little bit since they put their lives at risk, 20% sounds fair to me, giving them a grand total of £17,150.20.

I dont mind an increase in their salary if it comes with an increase in their hours...

I think you should all give these guys a break.. they deserve far more than the goverment could ever give them for the job they do.. At the end of the day they put there lives on the line at the start of every shift for you. they risk personal injury or even death. so shut up whineing and be gratefull that there are special people out there who are willing to give thier lives up to save yours you ungratefull sods.. I know all about the upset and grief an accident at work can cause a firefighters family and i dont think you have the right to comment unless you have been through it.. its not just about money..dont judge by your own standards....

erm, no Richard is right.

AFAIK the Fire Brigade is the only emergency service who are allowed to strike - certainly the Police cannot by Law - should be the same for them - they're an emergency service!

Originally posted by t020
Unions taking the p*** under a Labour government. No surprises there. I've heard the train workers are likely to strike nationally too. Lets hope Blair can keep the deviants under control.

It would appear that someone has made off with the Railwaymens pension fund while awarding themselves a healthy 5 figure bonus. :mad: