As a third gen FF I have been around this business/life for a while and I hate to see what is happening to the job. Lawrence just whacked almost two dozen and is now down from 150 two years ago to around 72 personnel. Only have a population of about 80,000 and a history of arson. No big deal. I was reading in the local paper where the reporters only got a "no response" from the union president! Why?! Was he laid off too? If he wasn't fired, in the hospital or mostly dead somewhere then he should have been jumping up and down and foaming at the mouth! Instead he was apparently preoccupied with something more important than his union getting cut off at the knees and losing another third of their people.
In my city a first alarm empties every station. Our second due pump is an out of town piece better than half the time. We all sit back and let this stuff happen to us. A few years ago our union prez came to us and said "This is the best deal the city will give us." It was their first offer. No negotiation. No back and forth. No counter offer. Nope. We just took what they offered and walked away and gave up stuff that had been fought for and won in the past. We are our own worst enemy.
We need to do a better job of getting our messages out there, a better job of winning the hearts and minds of the people who we work for. The politicians will make a little noise when a house burns down about how they wish they could have more firefighters on the job, blah, blah, blah. And how if the union would only concede every single thing that we ever fought for then they would be able to hire/rehire some people. Even now the state legislature is planning on taking away our right to negotiate our health care. You know what we are going to do? Roll over and take it. You know it. I know it.