With all your union knowledge I'm surprised you're naive to think that all firemen have to run up and down ladders. I'm sure you'll come up with some irrelevant fact to counter my argument but surely there are administrative jobs in the fire service that those who were too old or physically unable to run up and down ladders could do
Drive, inspect equipment, train the newbies
So now 1000's of firemen at the front end are all to get admin jobs
Why not the same for the police, the armed forces ?? Have you ever heard of the saying, "Too many chiefs, not enough Indians"? Next, Dedworth will be saying too many pen pushers not enough firemen