Do you know any cops, firefighters or paramedics slowpoke? Well I know a few and I think they need a union support. How many professions do you know of if you make a judgment error in the heat of the moment it could lead to the end of your career and jail time? Your joke about "spiffy uniforms" is in tremendously poor taste but I expect nothing less from left wing clowns like you. I would probably also add prison guards to the group.
My question about the spiffy uniforms wasn't intended as a joke. I was simply looking for something that would explain your bewildering claim that only cops, paramedics and firefighters should be allowed to have unions. I was also wondering if maybe you had a thing for flashing lights and sirens. Unfortunately, you've now accepted my suggestion that someone like you really ought to include prison guards on your list of union-worthy occupations so the sirens and flashing lights are out. I'll just have to look elsewhere for a rational explanation.
I went to university with a couple of guys who later became cops and, more recently, my wife and I frequently socialized with one of her friends from work and this friend's husband who was a detective of some kind (no uniform or flashing lights). He was a really nice guy and we managed to comfortably hang out together for a few years until they moved back to Nova Scotia where he was from. Oddly enough, this detective never once commented about the spectre of jail time for occupational lapses of judgement on his part. He seemed happily married and really quite normal so I would never have suspected that he was living his life under such an ominous cloud. Who knew?
My first landlord during my university days was a fireman who was also quite pleasant until he threw me out for smuggling girls up to my flat (girls cause big problems in the morning because they hog the all-male shared washrooms). This fireman seemed to really like his job because he was well paid for mostly just waiting around and his station was only a couple of blocks away from the 3 houses he was renting out to students. We were never really friends because he was the landlord and I was a student in my early 20's but we did often chat about his occupation, his various shifts and the fire station meal arrangements etc. Stange as it must seem, he never once mentioned how he was living under the threat of going to jail for making a mistake on the job. So I never would have known about this if you hadn't pointed it out to me. Thanks so much!
I'm no big fan of unions but my list of the most union-worthy occupations would have to include quite a few others who could also get jail time or professional censure for making spur of the moment occupational mistakes. How about transport truck drivers, bus and subway drivers, construction crane & heavy equipment operators, search and rescue (airplane & helicopter) pilots, airline pilots, triage nurses and other emergency room medics, psychiatric nurses, social workers and those working closely with high-risk and troubled young people, nuclear generation scientists and engineers, miners, teachers in tough schools (I'm good friends with a principal at such a school and she's been physically beaten by a student who was off his meds - she's had to report sexual abuse of several 12 - 15 year old girls by moms' boyfriends along with numerous other cases of child abuse, gross negligence etc. Her whole professional life is one giant judgement call under the microscopic scrutiny of parents, the law, the school board / ministry of education, social services etc).
We should also have a hard look at the regulations dealing with the unions themselves, including their political activities, donations etc. That would also apply to the more mundane occuptions like parks & rec, librarians, sanitation and so on.
This is a link to a site that shows the per-capita injury stats. Check out the "Industries" chart. Cops and firemen are not the most endangered occupations.
http://www4.hrsdc.gc.ca/.3ndic.1t.4r@-eng.jsp?iid=20