Tensions continue to grow between the firefightersโ union and their employer after an Auckland business was gutted by a blaze while crews were on strike this afternoon.
Fire and Emergency New Zealand accused firefighters of โgambling with the publicโs safetyโ amid a years-long pay dispute.
The New Zealand Professional Firefighters Union (NZPFU) hit back, calling the comments โdisgustingโ and claiming the organisation was throwing stones while the building was still burning.
The blaze broke out this afternoon at an industrial building housing a Middle Eastern grocery in the suburb of Pakลซranga, next to the Pakลซranga Highway.
One person is in a serious condition at Middlemore Hospital.
Jesus wept ACT Party politicians are unbelievable aren’t they?
Attacking Firefighters for striking because of their Government’s policies!!!
Look.
Whatever way you vote.
There are people who deserve our support and well wishes.
Ambulance staff.
Teachers.
Drs.
Nurses.
FIREFIGHTERS!
People who run towards the danger.
They deserve our utmost support!
What do they have?
A Hard Right Government who borrows for tax cuts we can’t afford, landlord tax loopholes, Big Tobacco, Big Dairy, Mining, Big Oil while hollowing out public service budgets!
This Government have dangerously underfunded the Fire Service and the Union is forced to strike because of that dangerous underfunding, for Brooke and Parmjeet to turn it into a political event is sickening!
We shouldn’t be cutting $50million each year from firefighting budgets! These people are our heroes who risk their lives on our worst day!
Underfunding Firefighters and then weaponising their strike against them FOR COST CUTTING THAT ACT HAS AGREED TO is outrageous!
ACT gleefully mutilate the State as part of their Chainsaw Libertarianism Dogma.
Friends don’t let friends vote ACT.
Increasingly having independent opinion in a mainstream media environment which mostly echo one another has become more important than ever, soย if you value having an independent voice โ please donate here.
Message for the morons who will inevitably want to attack Unions.
Feel free to tell your employer you no longer want the things Unions fought for.
Wave goodbye to your annual leave, sick leave, and maternity leave.
Tell your boss you’re happy to work for slave wages in dangerous conditions.
In fact, just tell them that they can lock you in the basement with bread and water until they need you for something.
The timing of that fire is peculiar. I wonder who lit it?
A Middle Eastern grocery which overall have a reputation for budget facilities and minimum safety compliance catches fire and you think it’s peculiar and imply arson? Evidently they do an investigation so unless you have inside knowledge I would wait for real evidence before rushing to cast doubt.
I am rebuked. Nobody lit the fire. Spontaneous combustion of vegetables? Self ignition of herbs and spices?
Seriously, is there anything at all that this CoC and its motley ministers can get right? It’s one circus after another. This CoC keeps cutting funds and bringing in policies that are ill thought out, not discussed with those affected, and certainly not transparent. Brooke seems to be embroiled in every forum. She is inexperienced, naive and a knee-jerker. It has been distressful watching the results of the CoC’s cruel, biased treatment of the needy but their denigration of our service workers is a new low. Stop it now. Read the room. Get it right just for once! How much longer do we need to tolerate this ‘out-of-control’ mob mentality? Can they not go now so we get a chance to SAVE OUR COUNTRY?
Our Left Parties need to do a Mayor Mamdani and get down to stand on the picket line to make a video address to the nation vowing their solidarity with the Firefighters and the justice of their demands..
If our Left parties can’t do that in opposition, we know that they won’t do it in government.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/39N8Zf7YqbE
To show they can work together in government, the Left parties need to show they can work together in opposition.
This government gambles with people’s lives physically and financially on a daily basis. Van Velden and Parmar are hypocrites.
In the annals of history Van Velden will be Van Velden who?
Brooke the crook should ask the landlords for 100 million to be returned which cold fund new equipment and better wages .After all it is landlords property they save everyday .
She would praise volunteers. The rich would use the poor to do their work and serve their needs and not even reimburse them, That is how these people voting ACT and so on think.
Caring about all people and trying to run a country in a modern, effective way is anathema to them – they are reverting to ancient tyopes of wealth and slavery, Enough is never enough for the poisoned minds of the money -mad and sharing distributing and having a happy, busy country where all are respected is not in their mindset.
And fire fighters being the most important people in the country, and the most needed and far more than politicians who are proving expensive drains on us are our problem to be solved, and we must look after our water purveyors and our fire prevention and the fighters who are dedicated to their task. They are higher than police in a respect and service ladder of worth.