"The firemen can find other jobs" when people are driven away from a job that they believe in and that belief has nothing to do with money because they cannot afford to live on the wages paid, that is immorral. Expecting people to work in a profession which may be very stressful or dangerous, for less money because it is a vocation is immoral. Walking away from a job because you are not being valued deprives the country of a persons services every bit as much as going on strike does. The sense of priorities that is wrong is that of a government who veto a wage offer which would have avoided the strike because they want to look tough and throw their weight around so that they can implement cost cutting changes that will leave us all less safe