Fire unions close to strike action

Firefighters will hold a protest march in London next week as their unresolved pay dispute threatens the first national strike for 25 years.

Relations between firefighters and the Government – already strained – will worsen this week as the Army begins training to provide emergency cover should firefighters ballot in favour of industrial action.

Army "green goddesses" are being lined up to take on the work of firefighters, a move that has angered the Fire Brigades Union (FBU), which plans a mass demonstration in Westminster to draw public attention to the row over pay and conditions in the service.

Last-ditch pay talks will be held on the same day – 2 September – between the FBU's national executive council and the Fire Service National Employers. If no progress is made in that meeting, the FBU annual conference will be recalled on 12 September in Manchester to discuss national strike action – which would be the first time since 1977.

An FBU source said: "The feeling we have got from members is that we will be overwhelmingly supported and could go to national strike action." The firefighters are lobbying for a £30,000 salary for full-time staff. Currently they are paid £21,531.

The FBU wanted its employers to join forces with union members to lobby the Government for better pay. Employers have refused and talks have ended in stalemate.

Andy Gilchrist, the FBU general secretary, said: "To date, our employers have not made a single offer to us. The meeting on 2 September is their last chance to avoid industrial action in the UK fire service. If no progress is made we will be recommending that we ballot our members for national strike action."

Elsewhere, union strife centres on moves to extend the 11 per cent pay deal for public-sector workers to people employed by private firms on contracted-out services, though the worst fears – of a summer of strike action – appear to have been averted.

Trade unions, including the GMB and the Transport and General Workers' Union, have said there may be industrial action in coming months if companies do not agree a similar deal with those workers.