cfs volunteers

[6739264]

Interesting article about the VFBA pushing for paid CFS members. Particularly that Mt Barker was mentioned even though they have so many members that they can have shifts for available members. Why on earth would they need paid firies then? If there are other stations in built up areas that do not have enough membership to get appliances on the road they will probably end up going the way of Seaford...

You need paid firies to guarantee a response 100% of the time.

[safireservice]

Not when the Emergency Services minister stated that there would be no paid CFS volunteers. If paid firefighters are required then they would be MFS.

Yeah she "promised" the UFU the only paid service would be MFS. Do you really beleive everything that comes out of pollies mouths do you? They only say what suits them at the time. If it were found to be cost effective to have CFS as paid fire fighters (talking 8-5, mon-fri, like down your way as opposed to 24/7) and it made her look good, watch the backflip then! 

[CFS_Firey]

From Wendy Shirley
Subject: Today's Advertiser
 
Hi Everyone
In todays advertiser there is a story on Page 9 quoting me asking for the debate regarding the employment of CFS paid firefighters to work in some brigades to be opened up.
 
This is in response to a Mt barker Courier article last week which quoted Vince Monterola saying that it was time to look at the issue.
 
That Courier article was responded to by David Place, CEO of SAFECOM saying some very nice things about volunteers and Stirling and Mt barker brigades in particular, but knocking on the head any thought of us being canvassed on this issue.
 
This is because the Minister has made a guarantee to the united Firefighters Union that CFS will not have the option of paid firefighters.
 
Unfortunately not all that i said was printed. I did say that not all volunteers were in favour of such a proposition, preferring to keep the pure volunteer ethos of the organisation. I also said that we should be allowed to have the debate, however, as firefighters employed by CFS could give extra flexibilty to some brigades in terms of day time crewing. This could be just two firefighters forming the nucleus of a crew, up to a full Monday to Friday day time crew.
 
This flexibilty would give the community a much more cost effective solution than putting in MFS firies, as there would most likely be a duplication in terms of stations etc in those communities. It would certainly be cheaper than a full 24/7 station such as we have seen in seaford, costing $5million to build and $2million a year to maintain.
 
The Association has not come to any determination on this matter. We simply want to have the debate amongst volunteers, to ascertain the best way forward for the service and the communities we serve. Unfortunately the article reads as if Stirling and mt barker are jumping up and down for paid firefighters right now. That has come from the Courier story, and is not the case
 
We would appreciate your views on this issue. Keep in mind that the CFA in Victoria has retained its status as a service separate to the Victorian Metro Fire Brigades, and is really the only service apart from us that has;
a.. got that separate identity and status
b.. and that provides the full range of emergency response that we do. CFA has some 40,000 volunteers and about 400 paid firefighters. It still retains its identity as a volunteer service. It is very strong and is under no threat of becoming a one service as we see in WA, Qld and Tassie.
Nothing more will be said by us in the media until after the Association AGM on Sunday October 28 (all invited RSVP Monday 22). This will be an agenda item.
 
Please email me or ring me at any time on 0427 823 656 to discuss
 
Cheers, Wendy

[uniden]

Maybe the VFBA should change their name to the country VFBA? The heirachy are obviously out of touch with the demands of people in urban areas. They are saying that Seaford doesnt need a fully manned fire station. Maybe then they will say that neither does Salisbury, Christies, Golden Grove etc?? Time saved can mean lives saved.

[CFS_Firey]

Well they did change their name, and it now includes the word country... CFSVA.

[Darius]

Maybe the VFBA should change their name to the country VFBA? The heirachy are obviously out of touch with the demands of people in urban areas. They are saying that Seaford doesnt need a fully manned fire station. Maybe then they will say that neither does Salisbury, Christies, Golden Grove etc?? Time saved can mean lives saved.

you did read the bit where it says they are inviting people to put forward their views on this? 
so why don't you then?  (and I don't mean moaning on the internet)

99% of the CFS is country.
(ok the 99% is a guess but 96.5% of all statistics are made up)

[RescueHazmat]

lol..

[Crankster 34]

99% of the CFS is country.
(ok the 99% is a guess but 96.5% of all statistics are made up)

Yeah, and 90% of the calls are done by urban brigades.

[Zippy]

and 80% of the stop calls are done by urban brigades.   lol sorry just had to throw that egg in 

[Pipster]

Crankster, what brigades do you include in the in your comment re urban brigades...?

Pip

[Zippy]

id say he's talking about  Seaford, Morphett Vale, Happy Valley, Stirling, Mt Barker, Dalkeith and Salisbury...

[RescueHazmat]

Crankster, what brigades do you include in the in your comment re urban brigades...?

Pip

Probably those that make up 90% of the calls.. As they highest call attendee's are classified Urban / Urban Fringe..

[Darius]

99% of the CFS is country.
(ok the 99% is a guess but 96.5% of all statistics are made up)

Yeah, and 90% of the calls are done by urban brigades.

yep I'm not arguing with that (whatever the percentage is) but don't forget the VFBA (which is what I was responding to) represents the volunteers not the incidents.  How someone from Oodnawoopwoop brigade that does 2 calls a year feels about the direction of the CFS is just as valid for consideration as from someone from one of the busy urban brigades.

what I think you're alluding to is that the busy urban brigades have different needs and pressures etc, which again I agree with.  Hence my point that if 'uniden' (presumably as someone from one of those busy urban brigades) feels he/she is not being represented by the VFBA then he/she should put forward their views or even attend the VFBA meetings, and have that influence into the VFBA.

it's like people in a club (or union or brigade) who don't like the decisions the club's president (or management) are making. What you do is put forward your views at a club meeting and get support for them. Maybe you even get yourself (or a like minded person) elected to the management committee so people who share your views have a channel to get them heard. The alternative is just whinge around the bar about the w*nkers running the club and do nothing about it.

[6739264]

The CFSVA will never properly represent the volunteers as it is funded by the government.

That and it is unwilling to take a strong stand and take strong action in order to rectify issues.

Its a shame, but if the CFSVA was willing to stand up to CFS corporate rather than let individual brigades and groups fight for themselves, we may well see some changes for the better.

[safireservice]

what I think you're alluding to is that the busy urban brigades have different needs and pressures etc, which again I agree with.  Hence my point that if 'uniden' (presumably as someone from one of those busy urban brigades) 

darius, uniden is retained MFS, not CFS

[bittenyakka]

on that point should the CFSVA become more of a Union or should CFS start a union or just hope for a liberal government.

[6739264]

on that point should the CFSVA become more of a Union or should CFS start a union or just hope for a liberal government.

The CFSVA just needs to be independent from the government body with which it is dealing. Hard to achieve without individual volunteers paying for it, but at the same time, if I knew that the CFSVA was going to stick up for me as a volunteer with the same gusto as the UFUA stands up for our paid counterparts, I'd happily pay up.

[AJ]

I fail to see how the CFSVA or VBFA are standing up for volunteers when they are arguing that volunteers can't do the job and should be paid!
Doesn't say much for our volunteer ethos if the organisation set up to support and advocate for us is saying that we should have paid fire fighters.
Seems to be a complete paradox an organisation whose sole purpose is to stand up for volunteers saying that they should be paid and not volunteers!!

[rescue5271]

AJ: are you sure its the VFBA that are saying volunteers cant do the job??? and why is it all of sudden beocome a issue that we VOLUNTEERS should be paid?? sounds like the FRAC team is stiring the pot.....As a volunteer are you forced to attend call outs or training??? as a volunteer you have the right to select just how much you wish to volunteer to the service...Something that alot of people have over looked if we where to be paid do you think that a brigade would still have say 25 members in it for one appliance?? No they would reduce the number of members at each station if we where being paid......  I did not join for the money i joint to provide a service to the community...

[chook]

Its not just your association that has an identity crisis sometimes & for the same reasons payed for by the government, represents a large group of people with different needs, join the service & you are a member of the association (compulsory unionism?) and dare I say it - staffed by vollies. Look at any union including the UFU payed for by members, payed staff and definite agendas. When as a group (some time ago)several units decided that state HQ & the association didn't know what it was doing, several options were discussed to make people sit up & take notice, after discussing several options & keeping in mind what happened in the Adelaide Hills (not wanting to drag that one up again but it serves as a warning to all)only one option we thought would work - withdraw our labour (which is what the unions use as its prime weapon afterall). And after careful consideration of the consequences & the impact on our communities, the idea was dropped (very quickly like a poisoned challis)- after all our complaints were serious but not enough to risk our families, friends and neighbours. And the government knows this, thats why they cut budgets, do backflips and will never pay vollies because they know that every time the pager goes off, someone will turn up - might take several pages & many brigades/units but crews will turn up. So I guess unless you want to do what your counterparts in the ACT did, you guys will be having this argument for some time to come. cheers

[Pipster]

id say he's talking about  Seaford, Morphett Vale, Happy Valley, Stirling, Mt Barker, Dalkeith and Salisbury...

I'm not sure that Mt Barker is an "urban fringe" brigade, and somewhere like Burnside & Athelstone not....but, if we take the responses for the brigades listed above, for 2005 -06 (as the 06-07 stats haven't been released yet) then these brigades do a around 15 % of the state's responses.

If we remove Mt Barker & Stirling from the figures, and put in Burnside & Athelstone ( which are more "urban fringe) then the brigades respond to 12.8 % of the state's responses.

I wouldn't expect the figures to change dramatically for the 2006-07 year (and certainly not 90% of the State's responses!)   

Pip

[RescueHazmat]

How many incidents were attended last year pip? ..

[Zippy]

So I guess unless you want to do what your counterparts in the ACT did, you guys will be having this argument for some time to come. cheers

lol, if what happened in ACT would ever happen here in SA....we might possibly see  Mike Rann being the "minister in PPE" lol...

http://youtube.com/watch?v=2ohYTYJN8Rw

[chook]

Love to see that holding a charged line in one hand and a set of lukus spreaders in the other - super vollie lol

[rescue5271]

Well would it work?? would volunteers be willing to do this?? and with SA about to get into what looks like a very dry and busy summer who is willing to do this??? the media would have a field day the coverage would be great but is this the way we should go....May be its time some of these pen pushers came and spent time on the front line and just see what volunteers do and see just how much we do train and all the other community work we do....

As for Rann in his PPE,when was he last at training?? has he done the burn over drill?? and does he not live in MFS area now???