GIVE THEM BILL ENGLISHS HOUSE ALLOWANCE!!!!!Because if you're inside a burning building and they're on strike..BILLS NOT COMING TO HELP YOU OUT!
I Think that the Firefighters Union are a bunch of draconian hypocrites. They protest about money being wasted on fire stations when it suits them yet have no problem wanting to waste millions of dollars building new fire stations to house new paid fire fighters where they aren't even needed. Oh... and for the record a New Zealand Defence Force Qualified Fire Fighter earns $785 weekly Gross whereas a New Zealand Fire Service Qualified Firefighter earns $968.76 weekly gross... BEFORE overtime and allowances. I know who I would rather be.... http://www3.fire.org.nz/recruit/job-information/remuneration.html
I really don't think people realise how little money firefighters get paid. If you divide their salary to an hourly rate it is LESS than the minimum wage (around $9 a hour) ..... this for saving lives. Many Firefighters work huge amount of hours in overtime per week or have second jobs, as the base pay is just not enough to live on, especially supporting families. They really deserve more and Keys saying that they need to look at whats happening out in the world at the moment with the economic times is not a good enough answer to decline any sort of pay raise. These firefighters have been fighting this battle for a very long time ... the public need to support them.