Fireman makes money
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Published Tuesday, May 19, 3: Last updated Tuesday, Jun. You get lots and lots of time off to go fishing or hunting or run your own business on the side. And your union always gets its way. Thorold is a middle-class town of 18, in southwestern Ontario. An arbitrator recently awarded them a retroactive 9.
Similar settlements have been awarded throughout the province.
Firefighting is increasingly a lucrative part-time job. The advantages of this arrangement are obvious. Mayor Luciani is not happy about this change. He figures that overtime and sick-pay costs will increase. But they virtually never win. Arbitrators simply hand the union whatever the last guys got.
Thanks to better building materials and stiffer fire safety regulations, the number of fires across Canada has plunged. In big cities, only a small number of the calls to the fire service are for actual fires.
In Toronto, only 9. But the number of firefighters just keeps going up. A new report by the Fraser Institute says the number of fires in Ontario fell by 41 per cent between and , while the number of firefighters increased by 36 per cent. On top of that, firefighter compensation has risen faster than inflation, according to the report.
Its strategy is to try to discredit and intimidate its critics, while reminding us that firefighters risk their lives on our behalf.
Why firefighters are underworked and overpaid - The Globe and Mail
They like to warn that any effort to challenge its demands will put the public at risk of frying in their beds. I have respect for firefighters.
But their union is far too powerful for the public good. The arbitration system is broken, too. As a result, firefighters and cops are eating up a bigger and bigger piece of municipal budgets, and leaving less and less money for parks and libraries and everything else. And look how hard they work. They save lives every day.
This dispute take years to settle. The original newspaper version and an earlier online version of this column estimated there were maybe 10 to 15 fires a year in Thorold, Ont. This online version has been updated.
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Fire Fighter Salary
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