10,000 march to back firefighters

Donations to the national firefighters' charity have dried up since the beginning of a series of strikes over pay.

The Fire Services National Benevolent Fund has complained it has "thousands of beneficiaries to support but on thin air".

Firefighters – who usually organise charity events in the run-up to Christmas – "can't be fund-raising while striking", the organisation said. In a press release issued yesterday, the fund even admitted to "feeling the pinch" because public opinion of the firefighters was "lower than ever".

But in a show of defiance, the Fire Brigades Union – backed by the whole of the trade union movement – mounted the biggest union demonstration for a decade when around 10,000 people marched through central London to support their dispute.

Andy Gilchrist, general secretary of the FBU, insisted support for his members in the Labour Party and the trade union movement was "over-whelming" and warned the Government not to interfere in the pay dispute again – or there would be more strikes.

Mr Gilchrist told the crowd in Hyde Park that the Government's handling of the issue – now being dealt with in exploratory talks with the conciliation service Acas – had been "shambolic, shameful and incompetent". He said the Government had sought to "demonise" firefighters.

He was supported by Dave Prentis, general secretary of Unison, who said other union bosses would not sit back and watch firefighters' jobs and fire stations axed.

Bill Morris, general secretary of the Transport and General Workers Union, said the demonstration was a "clear statement that we will not allow [the firefighters] to be starved back to work".

A number of trade unions have given financial support to the firefighters ahead of a threatened eight-day strike from 16 December – the day Sir George Bain's review proposals, linking pay rises to modernisation, are published.