It's down to the last ambulance dispute. Very many SJA and red cross came out from their normal jobs and did the "we will go out and treat folk" bit, but what is often overlooked by them is the other side, would you like some bod to walk in off the street and tell your boss, "Hi i want to do job X for free this week" and not have the same qualifications, experiance of incidents in the depth that service personel do? Personaly i see both sides and many are misdirecting anger, as it was the management localy and nationaly that had that bright idea to be devicive and try to break the dispute. You may notice i call it a dispute rather than strike, this is because in the main it was a management lock out that was not widely publicised. Many staff are of the opinion the VAS should stick to the motto "where ever a crowd gathers" rather than depriving people of real jobs. If you ask them directly, a lot will say its not the person, it is the uniform and can hapily cope with them in civies. wopit Operational ambulance crew and SJA member