Smoking Mad AboutThe Firefighters' Unions Rip Offs!

[TeddyBallgame]

- Did any of you know that in the past forty years the number of fires in the US has fallen by over 40% while the number of firefighters has risen by 40%?

- And did you know that only 2-5% of the public's calls to fire departments for assistance are actually fire emergencies?

- Or that rapidly increasing numbers of our firefighters now pull down six figure salaries for working their 6 shifts a month which gives them plenty of time to moonlight at other jobs while they prepare to take their early retirements in their early 50s on their lavishly subsidized, guaranteed, defined benefits, fully indexed pensions not available to those who are not in the new priveleged class of monopoly public sector union members.

- If you didn`t know these things and if you were naive enough to think that I was being a bit harsh on L. Gilbert recently in my thread about not contributing to the Coles bookstore book drive for schools when he commented about having nothing but respect for the firefighters`union that scored him his cushy gig and early retirement, perhaps you should enlighten yourself by reading award winning Globe and Mail columnist Margaret Wente`s column of today concerning the extraordinarily brazen and extravagant (even by public sector standards) rip offs of the beleagured taxpayers by the fire fighters unions.

MARGARET WENTE

How firefighters fan the flames of fear


The Globe and Mail


Published Thursday, Jan. 17 2013, 6:00 AM EST

Last updated Thursday, Jan. 17 2013, 6:08 AM EST


What happens if your city dares to cut the fire department budget?

Easy: Children will die. Maybe even yours.

That is the message of Toronto’s firefighters, who have been waging a shameless fear campaign against the poor wretches who are trying to rein in costs at City Hall.

Those wretches are no match for Ed Kennedy, the president of the firefighters’ association, who has been posing in front of burned-out houses to make his point that people probably died because of the firefighting jobs that went unfilled last year. More cutbacks would “definitely impact the response times,” he warned. Firefighters have been showing up at City Hall in T-shirts with the slogan “Seconds Count.” They’ve also been busy polishing their halos. They recently made heartwarming news when they donated children’s toys to a family whose house (and Christmas presents) had caught fire on Christmas Day. The sobbing family thanked them on the air.

A powerful combination of fear-mongering and hero worship has made Canada’s fire departments largely immune to budget cuts. As a consequence, the citizens are getting hosed.

Thanks to better building materials and awareness, the number of fires in the United States, for example, has plunged in recent years – more than 40 per cent since the 1970s, according to the U.S. Fire Prevention Association. But the number of professional firefighters has increased 40 per cent.

We like to think of firefighters as brave men who rush into burning buildings and risk their lives to save others. And so they do – once in a while. These days, the overwhelming majority of their work is responding to medical emergencies – many of them non-life-threatening, such as picking up elderly people who have fallen down. Of course we have EMS for that. But firefighters have to justify their existence. So they race to the scene because they can often get there a few minutes faster than the paramedics can. The evidence that this faster response saves lives is scant to non-existent.

And when paramedics show up two minutes later, then what? Well, the firefighters can always direct traffic.

In most jurisdictions in North America, only 2 to 5 per cent of calls to fire departments are actual fire emergencies. The rest are medical emergencies, false alarms, vehicle accidents and other miscellaneous events. Last year, Toronto’s fire department logged 145,335 incidents, around 7 per cent of which were “reported” fires. The number of actual fires was considerably smaller. Despite those dangerously unfilled firefighting jobs, fire fatalities in Toronto have dropped from 19 in 2001 to only nine last year.

If the nature of emergencies has changed profoundly, why hasn’t our model for responding to them changed at all? The answer: union clout and spineless politicians (who often enjoy the benefit of union clout at election time). That is why we have become all too accustomed to the sight of million-dollar hook-and-ladders screaming down the block whenever a little old lady has a fainting spell.

Toronto’s firefighters are near the top of the heap. They enjoy some of the best pay, pensions, perks and work conditions in North America. Toronto’s per-capita firefighting tab is 30 per cent higher than in neighbouring Mississauga. Many firefighters pull down in excess of six figures. They get regular “recognition bonuses” so they won’t leave, despite the fact that retention is not a problem. They can retire in their early 50s on full pensions. Best of all, they are required to work just six 24-hour shifts a month, which leaves lots of time for driving limos or working construction on the side. As for the crucial issue of response time, a 2010 study of 14 fire departments clocked how long it took firemen to get dressed and get on their trucks. Toronto placed last.

Across the U.S., the firefighters’ gravy train is crashing to a halt as municipalities run out of money. Some smaller cities are amalgamating services, and some are contracting out. At least one is planning to replace a few of its fire trucks with a paramedic in an SUV.

But not in Toronto, where smoke, mirrors and fear-mongering have triumphed once again. Yesterday the firefighters’ union won their budget fight. And citizens will pay and pay and pay.

 

[earth_as_one]

Great Fires 2001–2012

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fires#2001.E2.80.932012

Notice how many were in Canada? Firefighting is more than just putting out fires. Its also about preventing them in the first place

 

[Locutus]

Great Fires 2001–2012

2001—Kyanguli Secondary school fire, Machakos, Eastern Province, Kenya, 68 killed on March 26
2001—Erwadi fire incident, Tamil Nadu, India, 25 killed on August 6
2001—Manor Hotel fire, Quezon City, Philippines, 75 killed on August 17
2001—Myojo 56 building fire, Tokyo, Japan, 44 killed by arson on September 1.
2001—September 11 attacks—Two airliners deliberately flown into the World Trade Center Twin Towers in New York City, sparked fires on multiple floors. The Twin Towers both completely collapsed 56 and 103 minutes later. Debris from the collapse of the North Tower sparked fires on multiple floors of World Trade Center Building 7,[46] which also completely collapsed later in the day. A third airliner was crashed into the Pentagon, starting fires in that building.
2001—Volendam New Years fire during a New Year party in De Hemel cafè in Volendam, Netherlands killed 14 and injured 200
2001—Mesa Redonda shopping center fire, Lima, Peru, 291 killed on December 29
2002—Shree Lee International footwear factory fire, Agra, Uttar Pradesh, India, 42 killed on June 26
2002—Heppi Karaoke bar fire, Palembang, South Sumatra, Indonesia, 42 killed on July 9
2002—Ho Chi Minh City ITC Inferno, Vietnam, over 60 killed, over 100 missing and 500 injured in a luxurious department store fire and collapse
2002—Sidi Moussa prison fire, El Jadida, Morocco, killing 50, on November 2
2002—La Coajira nightclub fire at Caracas, Venezuela, 47 killed on December 1
2003—Daegu subway fire in Daegu (South Korea)
2003—The Station nightclub fire 96 died at the scene; 4 died from injuries at local hospitals in West Warwick, Rhode Island
2003—Peoples' Friendship University of Russia fire, Moscow, Russia, 36 killed on November 24
2004—Rangarajapuram wedding hall fire and kills 55 in Sri Rangam, Tamil Nadu, India on January 23.[citation needed]
2004—Zhongbai Commercial Plaza fire, Jilin, northeastern China, killed 53 on February 16
2004—San Pedro Sula prison fire, Honduras, killed 103 on May 17
2004—Momart warehouse fire, numerous significant contemporary work of arts destroyed by fire, 24 May 2004, Leyton, East London.
2004—Sri Krishna Aided Higher Secondary School fire, Kumbakonam, Tamil-Nadu, India, killed 94 on July 16
2004—Ycuá Bolaños supermarket fire, Asunción, Paraguay, kills 370, injures 500 on August 1.
2004—República Cromagnon nightclub fire in Buenos Aires kills 194, injures 714[citation needed] on December 30.
2005—Arq Mosque fire in Teheran, Iran, 59 killed on February 14.[citation needed]
2005—The Windsor Tower Building Fire (Spain), February 14–15[47][48]
2005—Beni Suef Cultural Palace fire in Egypt and kills 46 on September 5.[citation needed]
2005—Aardman Animations storage depot fire, 10 October
2005—11 die in a fire at the detention center of Amsterdam Schiphol Airport on October 27.
2005—Hertfordshire Oil Storage Terminal fire, a major explosion at Hertfordshire Oil Storage Terminal in Hemel Hempstead, United Kingdom injures 43 on December 11.
2005—Liaoyang City Central Hospital fire, Liaoyang, Jilin, China, 39 killed on December 12.
2006—KTS Composite Textile factory fire, at Chittagong, Bangladesh, 65 killed, 100 injured on February 24.
2006—Kolkata leather factory fire kills at least nine people in India on November 22.
2006—Moscow hospital fire kills 46 December 9.
2006—Fire at a store in Ormoc City, Philippines kills 24[49]
2007—Nursing home fire at Kamyshevatskaya, Krasnodar, southern Russia, killed 63 on March 19
2007—Penhallow Hotel fire at Newquay, Cornwall, United Kingdom.
2007—Charleston Sofa Super Store Fire in Charleston, South Carolina; 9 firefighters were killed battling the blaze.
2007—Warehouse fire in Atherstone-on-Stour, Warwickshire when 4 firefighters were killed
2007—Warehouse fire in Mexico City, Mexico where five people were killed
2008—Under constructing Korea 2000 refrigerated warehouse fire, Icheon, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea, 40 killed, on January 7.
2008—Namdaemun fire with collapse at Seoul, South Korea on February 10.
2008—Historic Quebec City Armoury destroyed by fire, Quebec, Canada, on April 4
2008—Four-story Rosamor Furniture factory fire, Lissasfa, Casablanca, Morocco, killing 55 on April 25
2008—Historic Alma College (St. Thomas, Ontario) in Canada burnt down by arsonists on May 28
2008—Texas Governor's Mansion heavily damaged during an extensive renovation; thought to be arson
2008—Cornwall Court Fire in Hong Kong on August 10 killing 4 people, including 2 firefighters.
2008—Toronto propane explosion in North York on August 10 killing 2 people, including 1 firefighter.
2008—Wuwang Club fire in Shenzen, China on September 20, killing 43[33][50]
2008—Video Parlour Cats fire by arsonist in Nanba, Osaka, Japan, killing 15 and injuring 10 on October 1
2009—Santika Club fire, Bangkok, Thailand, kills 66 on January 1.
2009—Nakumatt supermarket fire, Nairobi, Kenya, kills 29 on January 28.
2009—Great Beijing Mandarin Oriental Hotel fire of February, 2009 caused by fire works, 1 death.
2009—Bashundhara City mall fire killed 7 people on March 13, 2009 in Dhaka, Bangladesh
2009—Homeless hostel fire in Kamień Pomorski, Poland kills 23 on April 13.
2009—ABC daycare center fire kills 47 in Hermosillo, Mexico on June 5.
2009—Lakanal House tower block fire kills 6 in Camberwell, London, United Kingdom on July 3.
2009—Three alarm fire at a deli in Buffalo, New York kills Lieutenant Charles "Chip" McCarthy of Rescue 1 and Jonathan "Sim" Croom of Ladder 7 on August 24.[51]
2009—Taldykorgan Regional Drug Rehabilitation Hospital fire in Almaty Province, Kazakhstan, kills 38 on September 13.[citation needed]
2009—Perm Lame Horse Night club fire in Perm, Russia kills 153 people and injures over 140 on December 4.[52][53]
2009—Medan Karaoke bar fire in Medan of the Indonesian island of Sumatra kills 20 on December 4[54]
2010—2010 Tioman Island fire in Pulau Tioman, Malaysia. No deaths, 12 injured.
2010—2010 Bangkok riots in Thailand, burned BEC TV3, CentralWorld and many buildings.
2010—2010 San Bruno explosion in San Bruno, California, six-alarm fire from a gas main killing at least 4 and destroying dozens of homes on September 10.
2010—2010 Shanghai fire,[55] high-rise apartment building fire kills at least 53.
2010—A fire in a prison in Santiago, Chile kills at least 81 inmates; the country's deadliest ever prison incident.
2010—March 23, Stephen Court historic building fire in Kolkata, India kills at least 42.[56]
2011-September 4, Bastrop, Texas, 2 people were killed, 34,000 acres burned, over 1000 houses and other structures destroyed
2011—November 21, Delhi, India 15 killed and at least 36 injured at a eunuch festival caused by electrical short circuit.[57]
2011—December 9, AMRI hospital Kolkata, West Bengal kills at least 90. Most deaths caused by toxic fumes spreading through ducts of the Central air conditioning system.[58]
2012—January 2, Propane tanks at a dentist office in Laredo, Texas cause an explosion heard several miles away. No deaths; but millions of dollars in reported damage within a 3000 meter radius.[59]
2012—Unlicensed El Centro Cristro es Amor rehabilitation hospital fire, kills 27 persons, in Lurigancho-Chosica, Lima Province, Peru on January 28.[citation needed]
2012—A prison fire in Comayagua, Honduras kills at more than 361 inmates on 14 February.[60]
2012—A massive fire sweeps through a market in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, destroying between 500 and 1800 stalls and injuring 11 people.[61]
2012—April 3, A fire in a Moscow market kills 17 migrant workers.[62]
2012, May 6 -explosions and a fire at a petrochemical plant, specifically Bangkok Synthetics Plant for synthetic rubber, in the Map Ta Phut industrial estate in Rayong Province, Thailand killed 12 people and injured more than 100.[63]
2012, August 25 - Explosion and fire at Paraguaná Refinery Complex kills 48 and injures 151 people.
2012—September 11, A fire in a Karachi garment factory kills at least 312 workers.[64] in Karachi [65]
2012—September 11, A fire in a Lahore shoe factory kills 25 workers.[66]
2012—November 24, Fire in a Tazreen Fashion in Dhaka, Bangladesh kills at least 124.[67]

Notice how many were in Canada? Firefighting is more than just putting out fires. Its also about preventing them in the first place

You will make more friends and influence others if you don't c&p such a large thick wad (in this instance, sans the wiki source I might add, but you really should add to your posts) of garble that nobody will read. Instead, this protip:

List of fires - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

or, if you have a funny bone, customize your smoking hot link

 

[TeddyBallgame]

- Another way to influence others is to provide intelligent, relevant, value added comments concerning the actual topic at hand if you are capable of doing so.

- A long list of large fires mainly in the third world over the past decade has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO DO with the topic at hand which is the obvious, unconscionable, unaffordable and increasingly unsustainable firefighters unions boonddoggles that are finally being brought to an end in some of the bankrupted US cities and eventually will be here, hopefully before our cities are bankrupted.

 

[lone wolf]

I'll bet you'd leap straight to litigation if an understaffed fire service failed to show up at your blaze. Why have fire insurance rates gone up?

 

[earth_as_one]

- Another way to influence others is to provide intelligent, relevant, value added comments concerning the actual topic at hand if you are capable of doing so.

- A long list of large fires mainly in the third world over the past decade has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO DO with the topic at hand which is the obvious, unconscionable, unaffordable and increasingly unsustainable firefighters unions boonddoggles that are finally being brought to an end in some of the bankrupted US cities and eventually will be here, hopefully before our cities are bankrupted.

The cities who have inadequate firefighting services have frequent and deadly fires. Countries like Canada with adequate firefighting services have fewer less deadly fires, because we have fire codes and regular inspections.

If a government keeps cutting taxes and increasing spending, debt will become a problem.

Firefighters aren't wealthy people. They are middle class.

The wealthy people who control what we see on TV, in the movies and on radio have created a perception that middle class people are too wealthy and the solution is to lower their standard of living to the point where they are lower class. But the real problem are multimillionaires and billionaires who pay little to no taxes and everyone in the poor and middle class who can't figure out this is a problem on their own.

 

[Serryah]

My uncle was a firefighter Captain in Saint John NB and one of his last acts before retirement was to risk himself to save an elderly woman who was unconscious in a town house while the floors weekend around him. One of my best friends is a volunteer firefighter here in town and I know a lot of the other guys.

So you know what, I'm kind'a defensive of them.

Teddy, I think you post BS like this just to get people ticked at you, so you can complain about how they're "liberal" or "leftist". I won't deny that unions of any type now a days are more for themselves than the workers they represent but be that as it may in the case of firefighters - both on payroll or volunteer - IMO don't get paid ENOUGH most of the time for what they do.

They don't just "fight fires"; they risk their lives in extreme heat or in freezing cold, they can spend hours trying to contain a blaze and fight off frostbite and ice in winter, heat exhaustion and heat stroke in summer. They go into blazing buildings to save men and women, elderly and child and sometimes even pets. If a forest fire breaks out they join DNR in trying to contain the blaze or to save nearby homes. They sometimes deal with live wires, propane, oil, gas and other hazard material, they go out for MVA's to rescue trapped people in their cars, they go out on lakes or rivers to rescue boaters, they perform search and rescue operations for missing persons. In some areas they are first responders because an ambulance is too far away, or perform lift assists if requested. They spent all year doing training on various new equipment, keeping up to date on their courses, learning new things about fire and how to fight it or what new dangerous chemicals are out there and how to deal with them. They go through disaster training, they go through mock fire simulations. They. Save. Lives. By risking their own.

So you think they're overpaid? You think if they moonlight for another job it's a bad thing (volunteer FF usually do have secondary jobs that have to accommodate the firefighter working for them if there's a call)? You think their being able to retire early is bad? Then how about YOU volunteer your butt to do their job for a year and see how you feel after? YOU carry the packs they have to up sometimes a dozen flights of stairs, YOU go on a rescue where the MVA has lead to a child death or a decapatation. YOU go out in -25 weather to try and save a home despite knowing it likely won't happen. YOU go out on the scuba team to dive for the person who drowned in a lake so their family has something to bury.

YOU do HALF the stuff these men and women do and when you do, THEN you and anyone else who's done the same has the right to bitch and complain.

That goes for Cops, too.

Not to say there isn't anything wrong in either service, there is but there's always "something" in ANY job. So until you DO that job, sit down and zip it.

 

[lone wolf]

As much as I doubt the motives of Union now, I do acknowledge a recent ruling, fought for by firefighter unions, that does much to take care of firefighters stricken with cancers caused by toxic smoke.

 

[JLM]

So it's firefighters on Teddy Boy's hate list this week. Democrats and Obama must be enjoying the break!-

 

[damngrumpy]

Lets talk about what happens if you don't have enough firefighters. We had enough but
needed more in 2003 when all hell broke loose on the Mountains above Kelowna. I don't
know if Teddy has experienced a good ole fashioned forest fire storm. It moved at times
at a rate of 1000 feet a minute in high winds. What did they do?
Our fire department put their lives on the line in residential neighbourhoods saving one home
at a time. Some were unable to be saved. In some cases they sacrificed their own home
while saving others that could be saved. These guys showed what it meant to have guts and
bravery day after day. Firemen came from other places as well as did the military.
The people had trust in those working on their behalf. We didn't ask about colour, political
affiliation or whether they loved their union or not we were dependent on them to save this
city and they did. That is what mattered.
We need firefighters to be on hand and trained the massive blaze threatening our homes
clearly demonstrated that. I would rather have too many than not enough.
I guess someone had to be the victim of the day here. Obama is being sworn in, in four days
and soon some will be attacking him again, in the meantime firemen will have to dodge the
slings and arrows of some.

 

[Sal]

They also have to respond to every 911 call. That means responding to a wide array of really bad stuff. At Christmas time, that means many attempted or actual suicides. They are away from their family on long shifts. They have to maintain their health and strength and when they are fighting a fire it is one miserable, dangerous job.

I know unions are corporate now, and likely as corrupt, however they still balance things out.

 

[JLM]

They also have to respond to every 911 call. That means responding to a wide array of really bad stuff. At Christmas time, that means many attempted or actual suicides. They are away from their family on long shifts. They have to maintain their health and strength and when they are fighting a fire it is one miserable, dangerous job.

I know unions are corporate now, and likely as corrupt, however they still balance things out.

Yep! (Actually you are wasting your breath responding to Mensa Boy's palaverings, if he really was a Mensa, he'd know better to start with)

I'm not sure what the policy is elsewhere, but when we have an emergency here, be it medical, fire, or accident, the fire crew responds to all of them as they are trained not only to fight fires but most other emergencies like applying first aid, rescuing drowning victims etc. They will likely even show up when T.B. starts to choke on his bullsh*t!-

 

[Goober]

Toronto - Fire Trucks deployed - 1% were for fires- the rest were for accidents as FF are highly trained and a number of other events- but the 1% number is accurate.

 

[Tonington]

My first year in university was almost my last year in university. I was at Saint Thomas University, studying Criminology. In January, I had a severe accident on campus. A caved in plate glass window severed my right bicep muscle. I knew it was bad immediately, I had a long sleeved t-shirt on which turned deep red instantly, and my arm felt very warm. A friend of mine thought quickly and grabbed a clean towel, and wrapped it around my arm. Someone called 911, and the first to arrive were the firefighters. The ambulance was stuck at the entrance to the campus, the EMTs were looking for a security guard who could open the gate. A friend of mine later told me they were in the process of cutting the chain off the fence when the firefighters arrived, carrying me into the ambulance. I was losing consciousness at that point.

It's a 5 minute ride to Chalmer's from STU. At the hospital they cleaned my wound, and temporarily sewed the wound up. I was very lucky, the glass missed all of the major arteries, tendons, and nerves. When the Orthopedic surgeon arrived, he sutured my bicep muscle back together, and stapled my arm shut. In the end I lost nearly 10% of my bicep, but have full use of my arm and have not had problems with heavy weights on my preferred arm.

Just like our military don't just fight wars, firefighters don't just fight fire. They are compensated well, and there are more of them, but that to me is completely justified. They put their live at risk, and are increasingly asked to do more than just put out fires and rescue cats stranded in trees in a world where cities and population are growing.

 

[gerryh]

I really don't know why you guys give teddy the satisfaction.

 

[JLM]

I really don't know why you guys give teddy the satisfaction.

He may get the idea we don't love him any more!

 

[TeddyBallgame]

- Mea Culpa, Mea Maximum Culpa!!!

- I realize now that I should never have posted and quoted from that column published in Canada's national newspaper, the only Canadian newspaper to be ranked among the top fifty in the world every year, that column written by the only journalist to win the best major market column writing in the country award more than once, concerning the latest machinations of the fire fighters' union in Toronto.

- After all, Canadian Content is the Mecca for moochers, morons and misfits who exist at the public trough either as public sector union members or retirees or through other taxpayer subsidized entitlements. So even though the filling of 63 more fire fightiing positions as demanded by the union leader concerned postions that had mainly been empty for at least the past two years, and even though the actual Fire Chief testified that leaving these positions empty would not impact on fire fighting or fire safety, and even though these 63 positions would impose another unecessary cost of over $8 million a year on Toronto taxpayers, and even though everybody with a functioning cerebral cortex knows that fires have decreased while fire fighters have increased dramatically over ht epast few decades, and even though increasing numbers of cities in the US and countries like Greece have been bankrupted by overstaffing and inflated public sector compensation, these dedicated troughers - the mmochers, morons and misfits of Canadian Content - would violently disagree with all logic and economics and would attack me personally since they were not so utterly moronic as to attack the Globe or Wente or the Fire Chief.

- But now I have been persuaded of the rightness of our CC M.M&Ms cause which is to dramatically increase everyone`s taxes and every jurisdictions debt by continuing hikes in the numbers and compensation of fire fighters and all other `monopoly union public sector workers and so I AM NOW ON SIDE with the CC M,M&Ms.

- Their arguments have been so, so compelling that I simply must join forces with them in this noble cause to turn Canadians into Greeks with mufflers and mittons!

- earth_as_one wisely pointed out that there were really big fires on 9-11-01 in the WTC towers and at The Pentagon and also cited many other fires including the 2002 fire at Shree Lee International Footwear in Agra, Uttar Praded, India which killed 42 poor souls.

- Serryah wrote that his uncle had been a fire fighter Captain in St. John, NB and that these guys don;t get paid enough for what they do.

- JLM, the guy who is a triple threat in that he is not only a moocher but a moron and a misfit eloquently attacked me for putting fire fighters on my hate list and giving Obama and the Democrats a rest (I guess they must also be on Wente`s hate list).

- damngrumpy the former monopoly public sector union leader who has made a career out of screwing the taxpayers informed me about a massive forest fire above Kelowna in 2003 and said they didn`t have enough fire fighters at the time (where the hell was the army) and that (surprise!) HE would rather there be too many than not enough. This argument really struck home for me because we have a terrible problem with forest fires here in downtown Toronto.

- Sal noted that the FFs respond to EVERY 911 CALL, whether the EMS or anyone else wants them to or not.

- Torrington (sic) incorrectly noted that fire fighters are being asked to do more than ever when in fact they are doing less than ever in their core job since fires are way down and fire fighters are way up and since they are actually being asked to do LESS in terms of union inspired boondoggles like accompanying all EMS emergency calls but then Torrington like the others here is never one to let the facts and the logic get in the way of his agenda.

-BOTTOM LINE IS THAT I AM NOW ON SIDE WITH THE CC M.M&Ms AND IN THE SPIRIT AND THE LOGIC OF THEIR ARGUMENTS I PROPOSE:

1. A fully staffed fire station on every street corner.

2. FFs making over $100,000 a year to start and over $200,000 after 11 years of service.

3. FFs working 4 shifts a month rather than the current cruel six shift requirement.

4. $200,000 a year FFs not only responding to fires and to cats in trees and to old ladies who have fainted but also will henceforth respond to school crossing guard and flagmen shortages and various other junior, $11 an hour temporary job vacancies. This plus the fire stations on every street corner should ensure that the FF unions get an ever increasing number of members to fill the unions coffers and the unions leaders wallets.

5. FFs retiring on their lavishly subsidized, fully indexed, early retirement schemes at the age of 40 rather than the current cruel practice of requiring them to work into their early 50s.

- There, I`m now on side and applaud the CC M,M&Ms determination to fight the competitive market sector`s drive to do more with less by a counterdrive in the sheltered public sector to do less with more. FFs are already in the vanguard of this noble quest.

 

[lone wolf]

- After all, Canadian Content is the Mecca for moochers, morons and misfits who exist at the public trough either as public sector union members or retirees or through other taxpayer subsidized entitlements.

Yet ... here you are - heiferdust and all....

 

[JLM]

So Teddy Boy a.k.a. Mensa boy is still propogating the myth that everyone is wrong, excepting HIMSELF of course!-

 

[TeddyBallgame]

Yet ... here you are - heiferdust and all....

- LW - Only because I find the lunatic left wing fringe which dominates the proceedings here to be alternately unintentionally hilarious (see my post above) and interestingly vacuous, never because I expect to have a focused, factual, rational discussion and debate about important issues.