Firefighters not allowed to volunteer

The Dom Post reports:

Union restrictions on professional firefighters attending emergencies as volunteers on their days off is putting lives at risk, fire officers say.

This month the Wellington branch of the New Zealand Professional Firefighters Union sent a tersely worded memo reminding members that joining volunteer stations in their spare time was “completely contrary to union rules”.

And if you refuse to join the union, life will be made very very nasty for you.

But a Wellington firefighter and former volunteer criticised the policy, saying it endangered lives.

Many firefighters who worked in city stations lived in small towns and just wanted to help their community, he said.

Working shifts, they were sometimes available for daytime callouts at understaffed volunteer stations.

“If the truck can’t turn out because they can’t get the numbers to get on it .. someone’s house could be burning down, someone could be trapped inside it.”

The union hates the volunteer stations. They see them as scabs.