I was going to do my best to stay away from looking at posts on this forum as it's only going to annoy me when I see people criticizing us for going on strike and believing the lies that the MP's and media spout - yes lets think back to the last few years about MP's lying about expenses or the media with the whole phone hacking scandal!
I've never for one moment wanted to strike, as I don't think it's going to make a difference to what we're trying to achieve and all I can see it doing is driving the public away from us and losing their support - although reading the some of the stuff on the internet sometimes it seems like they couldn't give a **** and everyone's in it for themselves and couldn't care what we get - as long as we turn up when they need us.
I'm maybe lucky in the sense that I work in Scotland and, at the moment, won't be going on strike as the Gov't up here look like they might be able to compromise on some issues.
What they Gov't are doing is saying "you will pay more, work longer, receive less and oh, by the way, see if you don't pass your medical? Say goodbye to employers contributions!"
Glacius, have you looked into the way our pensions run? As you said that there is a shortfall and someone has to pay the deficit. That wasn't the way the Fire Pension was supposed to work and as you said, it wasn't set in stone? It was with us. Our pensions were never invested and so, were not liable to the markets failing or going bad. If you want to look at it simply, our pension contributions were put into a pot and it was used to pay the retired members. This started to fail when the Gov't needed cash for roads, buildings etc and then changed the pensions for new comers and froze recruitment. They have reduced member contributions and as such, are now bringing in less. The government are now using this as excuse to try and get more money out of us when our pension was sustainable.
I'm supposed to retire at 60 and if I fail my medical, and there is no jobs within the fire service (there was 6 jobs in the UK last year which people could transfer into) that I can do, then I will be sacked. Not medically retired - sacked! That means so pension for me until I reach pension age and I lose my employers contributions.
What lunawolfy posted earlier about the fitness standards we have to achieve is correct. The Gov't got an independent study to look at the standards currently and his findings were that the vast majority of people employed will not reach it. As well as saying that virtually no females would be able to reach the target they have set! The Fire Service has spent millions on trying to recruit females into this job and break the stigma - yet the Gov't have chosen to ignore the FBU's advice, as well as the independent review, to go ahead with their proposals.
As well as this, are you the British public, happy for a 58 year old man to be coming up and trying to rescue you from a fire? Seriously think about that. There's a retained guy in my station who is 58 and retired from whole time. This guy was supposedly the fittest guy in the station is his prime and is still in decent-ish shape but when you see him at fire's getting on/off the appliance - I dread to think what I will be like. That's where we and the public are at risk.
This isn't about getting more money. It's about getting what you signed up to. I can't walk into a bank and say "Mr Banker, the mortgage that I signed up to, I'm not happy with that, I am now going to pay at 2% interest". That is more or less what the Gov't are doing to us. We signed a contract and it should be honored. I don't see how the Gov't are not breaking the law by changing this.
I would also like to ask the people "against us" to look at the way the MP's run their job. They get yearly pay rises, pay less into a pension with better benefits, a free bar, travel expenses, second homes fully furnished and yet they are cutting the firefighters, police, nurses etc etc. Is this correct?
This may not be the best post in the world as I have so much to say on the topic and it's hard to fit it in, but we've been negotiating with the Gov't for 2 years on this, and in July they put an offer on the table and said take it or leave it. That's why we're striking. As I said at the start, I don't want to strike, but if it's for my pension and my future - then I will.
