All of London's firefighters to be sacked

Story here

Quote :

Fire brigade chiefs are preparing to sack all 5,500 London firefighters despite their decision to end industrial action.

The Tory-controlled London Fire Authority is expected to vote at an emergency meeting on Thursday to force all frontline staff onto new contracts with changed shift patterns.

Of course it's the Tories. It's always the bloody Tories.

Their solution? Sack the lot of them, and then re-employ them under unfair contracts increasing their working hours and no longer allowing them to work second jobs because their pay is already so shitty.

Quote :

This is despite firefighters abandoning action — which almost led to a Bonfire Night strike — and 84 per cent of union members voting to accept the recommendations of an independent panel to change their working hours.

That's right, the firefighters were willing to meet them halfway. That's not enough for the bloody Tories apparently.

I kind of hope that the firefighters decide not to be re-employed after that.

Oh I do hope they all refuse to sign the contracts, the people of London are gonna love have no fire department of any kind.

I wonder how much more of this crap the Tories can pull before the Liberal Democrat half of the government picks up it's half of the goal posts and go home.

Somath Cegem wrote:

Oh I do hope they all refuse to sign the contracts, the people of London are gonna love have no fire department of any kind.

I wonder how much more of this crap the Tories can pull before the Liberal Democrat half of the government picks up it's half of the goal posts and go home.

There's a betting pool on Twitter for how long the Coalition will last. Nobody's got anything beyond Christmas.

Fire Brigade really should've gone through with the Bonfire Night strike; it would have served to remind people just how important they are.

hmm hmm I wonder how swiftly heads would come out of asses if, say, the homes of the London Fire Authority (empty at the time, of course) mysteriously caught fire?

Remember, Remember, the Fifth of November...

ZoZo wrote:

There's a betting pool on Twitter for how long the Coalition will last. Nobody's got anything beyond Christmas.

See I can see them all being wrong, the fact the Lib Dems are actually (kinda) in power for the first time in ages and might not be again for a while given the amount of people who feel betrayed i can see some wanting to hold on as long as possible just for that extra taste of power as bitter as it is.

So... Great Fire of London redux a-comin', anyone?

Malganis wrote:

So... Great Fire of London redux a-comin', anyone?

If anything, more like when the Suffragettes burned down Lloyd George's house.

Cyberwulf wrote:

(empty at the time, of course)

Oh, well that makes it okay then.

Sacking the entire London Fire Department? That's insane even by Cameron's standards.

Cyberwulf wrote:

Figures of speech such as "target this" are dangerous and should be banned but arson is a totally acceptable way to solve problems.

I don't know how much London firefighters get paid, but back in Anchorage they had a pretty good hourly wage, depending on their rank (new hires only got like $10 an hour, but they are essentially monkeys with mutant garden hoses. Higher ranks got something like $25 an hour). This was in addition to benefits like health care and what not. Granted, there was always SOME dispute over something like new safety gear, the details of retirement, or why doughnut scarfing wastes of carbon got so and so benefit while the firefighters didn't. Shit like that was usually either settled in arbitration or a hockey game (srsly, the police and firefighters had hockey teams and would use them as an excuse to beat the bejeezus out of each other for fun). This all worked well enough for both the firefighters and the cities.

I don't know if London firefighters are the type that are legitimately being under rewarded for their work, or if they're another pack of spoiled government workers with six digit a year retirements.

Okay, tell me if I've got this straight-the current government is threatening to sack ALL THE FIRE FIGHTERS IN LONDON and make them re-negotiate their contracts so they don't have to pay them as much and make them work shitty hours?

Are these people mental?! What happens if a fire breaks out before they get the contract re-negotiated? What happens if the fire fighters won't re-negotiate? If you're house catches on fire, what are you supposed to do? Get the neighbors to come over and piss on it and hope it doesn't spread?

And I thought American politicians were idiots...

My understanding is that Britain isn't too far behind the US in the batshit-crazy department.

Cyberwulf wrote:

hmm hmm I wonder how swiftly heads would come out of asses if, say, the homes of the London Fire Authority (empty at the time, of course) mysteriously caught fire?

If I made a reference to Minimum Security, would anyone get the joke? Eh, fuck it. I'll just leave my comment at "You're a bad person" and call it a night.

Rabid Badger wrote:

Okay, tell me if I've got this straight-the current government is threatening to sack ALL THE FIRE FIGHTERS IN LONDON and make them re-negotiate their contracts so they don't have to pay them as much and make them work shitty hours?

Are these people mental?! What happens if a fire breaks out before they get the contract re-negotiated? What happens if the fire fighters won't re-negotiate? If you're house catches on fire, what are you supposed to do? Get the neighbors to come over and piss on it and hope it doesn't spread?

Bucket chain? Works for Ankh-Morpork.

For people who haven't spotted this yet, the decision was made by a local authority and not by the coalition government. Also, my experience of Tory run local authorities is that this kind of stupidity is pretty much par for the course.

Anon wrote:

For people who haven't spotted this yet, the decision was made by a local authority and not by the coalition government. Also, my experience of Tory run local authorities is that this kind of stupidity is pretty much par for the course.

That's right. The London Authority are particularly thick, as well. They're Tories, too.

Funniest thing is, that article I linked was from the Evening Standard who usually cheerlead for the authority because one of their journalists is the Mayor's brother.

For those asking about pay for firefighters, the top bracket is about £28000 annually. That's about what a highly trained nurse or teacher gets. And it should be more for all of them. For comparison, most footballers earn that in less than a week.

Sutremaine wrote:

that makes it all right then

You're right, that remark was in extremely poor taste. I apologise.
Is it legal to fire all the firefighters and then rehire them under shittier contracts? I would've thought there were labour laws against that. Or is it just that firefighters are considered public servants/an essential service?

Cyberwulf wrote:

Sutremaine wrote:

that makes it all right then

You're right, that remark was in extremely poor taste. I apologise.
Is it legal to fire all the firefighters and then rehire them under shittier contracts? I would've thought there were labour laws against that. Or is it just that firefighters are considered public servants/an essential service?

I think it is legal: the Tories are also stripping away various labour laws to make firing workers a lot easier.

I'd imagine they were counted as an essential service, though, because they are, and that's why this whole thing is so fucking unfair.

Zoey wrote:

For those asking about pay for firefighters, the top bracket is about £28000 annually. That's about what a highly trained nurse or teacher gets. And it should be more for all of them. For comparison, most footballers earn that in less than a week.

That sounds halfway reasonable for firefighters, depending on what all health benefits and such they get. This is based on my assumption shit in Angle Land costs the same as shit in Kentucky. Nurses might get more if you didn't have a centrally planned health care system. And if your teachers are the same incompetent, tenured idiots we have in America, they don't deserve even that.

As for football players, they wouldn't make so much if you idiots didn't live and die by a game for fourth graders. Besides, do you have any idea how much they must pay in taxes? I bet Peter Crouch pays enough in taxes to pay for half of the fire department himself. And those in the EPL are mostly among the best individuals in a very competitive field. I'm sure the best firefighters, nurses, and teachers in the world get paid well enough themselves.

Mikey, love wrote:

Zoey wrote:

For those asking about pay for firefighters, the top bracket is about £28000 annually. That's about what a highly trained nurse or teacher gets. And it should be more for all of them. For comparison, most footballers earn that in less than a week.

That sounds halfway reasonable for firefighters, depending on what all health benefits and such they get. This is based on my assumption shit in Angle Land costs the same as shit in Kentucky. Nurses might get more if you didn't have a centrally planned health care system. And if you're teachers are the same incompetent, tenured idiots we have in America, they don't deserve even that.

Our teachers are a little better, I think. My state education taught me the difference between "your" and "you're"...

Anyway, of course the firefighters don't get health benefits, we've got a fully funded national health service! The cost of living in the UK is higher than in the US as a whole. Is Kentucky more or less expensive than the rest of the States?

Mikey, darling wrote:

As for football players, they wouldn't make so much if you idiots didn't live and die by a game for fourth graders. Besides, do you have any idea how much they must pay in taxes? I bet Peter Crouch pays enough in taxes to pay for half of the fire department himself. And those in the EPL are mostly among the best individuals in a very competitive field. I'm sure the best firefighters, nurses, and teachers in the world get paid well enough themselves.

Honeypie, you've unwittingly given me an idea for a protest. I suspect a lot of footballers are paying non-dom taxes, i.e. because they're not UK citizens (or don't properly live in the UK), they don't have to pay UK taxes, because most of our star footballers are international. I'll probe that one...

Zoey wrote:

Our teachers are a little better, I think. My state education taught me the difference between "your" and "you're"...

Shut up.

Zoey wrote:

Anyway, of course the firefighters don't get health benefits, we've got a fully funded national health service! The cost of living in the UK is higher than in the US as a whole. Is Kentucky more or less expensive than the rest of the States?

There's your problem. The government is wasting all of their money on health care so they can't afford to pay health benefits to firefighters.

I'm pretty sure Kentucky is below average. I know my parents moved from Alaska to Kentucky when my dad retired partly because of cost of living was a little too high in Alaska. Something like $45,000 dollars (or whatever 28,000 pounds converts to) is probably enough to live fairly comfortably in Kentucky. You won't be going on semi-annual cruises or fancy shit like that, but you'll have a house with electricity and food and intarwebz and such.

Zoey wrote:

Honeypie, you've unwittingly given me an idea for a protest. I suspect a lot of footballers are paying non-dom taxes, i.e. because they're not UK citizens (or don't properly live in the UK), they don't have to pay UK taxes, because most of our star footballers are international. I'll probe that one...

Hold up and think about this for a minute.

1.) Peter Crouch was born in and lives in England, I hope he pays England taxes.
2.) Consider how important internationals are to your Chelsea before you taxes them out of the country. Also consider whether or not English players in foreign leagues like La Liga pay taxes back to England on their salaries.

Mikey, sweetie wrote:

There's your problem. The government is wasting all of their money on health care so they can't afford to pay health benefits to firefighters.

We don't need health benefits. They get it all for free, anyway. That's the beauty of universal healthcare.

Mikey, poppet wrote:

Zoey wrote:

Honeypie, you've unwittingly given me an idea for a protest. I suspect a lot of footballers are paying non-dom taxes, i.e. because they're not UK citizens (or don't properly live in the UK), they don't have to pay UK taxes, because most of our star footballers are international. I'll probe that one...

Hold up and think about this for a minute.

1.) Peter Crouch was born in and lives in England, I hope he pays England taxes.
2.) Consider how important internationals are to your Chelsea before you taxes them out of the country. Also consider whether or not English players in foreign leagues like La Liga pay taxes back to England on their salaries.

Crouchie might, but most of our Premiership footballers aren't English. That's why the England team are so unbelievably bollocks. That was pretty much all the English footballers in the country. They're also generally too sucky to go abroad, except when we sent David Beckham off to the US. You lot are about as sucky at football as the English.

Eh, Chelsea can go fuck themselves, bunch of overpaid wankstains.

Anyway. After that little sport-based digression, let's have a look at some other shittiness perpetrated by Brian bastard Coleman. He's just been made to stop banning questions about the shitty things he's up to. That's right, he tried to avoid all accountability. What a dickhead.

Rabid Badger wrote:

Are these people mental?! What happens if a fire breaks out before they get the contract re-negotiated?

I imagine the timing will make it less 'get out and don't come back until you renegotiate' and more 'accept this or you don't have a salary any more'. Or they'll do it in stages so that there are firefighters left to cover the inevitable arson that will result from this.

ZoZo wrote:

I think it is legal: the Tories are also stripping away various labour laws to make firing workers a lot easier.

Let me guess...the Tories are the British equivalent of the Republicans.