The article needs to be read in conjunction with the UFU submission to the F&ES review. Remember the bits about separate identities, look after the vollies etc?
Welcome to SA Fire & Rescue Service!
Guys this is not an attack on the crews, its an attack on the management team, SAFECOM & indirectly the minister. This is because they can see the beginnings of an intergrated tri service, rather than the one all encompassing service they were hoping for! What they want is to do it all (except for the stuff that takes lots of man power & time)And with CFS doing rural fire fighting & SES doing storm & flood non glory work, SAF&RS members will be UFU, the power of the union increases & the vollie associations decreases. Once the volunteers are subdued then they will start on the retained crews trying to justify full timers in their positions. Why? - easy more full time members, means more union dues (the union has more money to play with) and everyones happy!
Well done UFU going public with something that should have been kept internal, but remember the next time that your members have a job that goes sour - the media will remember your comments & so will the property owners - I don't think they will be saying "oh well you did your best".
Interestingly SAFECOM spoke for both service chiefs - more intergration?
Anyway enough of my rant
cheers