Huge firefighter backing for strikes

Firefighters will stage a series of strikes over the next two months after 87 per cent voted in favour of action over pay, their union announced today.

The Fire Brigades Union said its members will strike for 48 hours from 29 October, for 48 hours from 2 November 2 and will carry out a series of four eight-day strikes in November and December.

The Fire Service Minister Nick Raynsford described the decision as "wretched and wrong."

The strikes - in support of a claim for near 40-per-cent pay increase - could last for up to eight days and will lead to ageing military Green Goddesses being used to tackle fires across the UK.

The last time this happened was during the first – and last – national strike in 1977, which lasted for nine weeks.

The Government continued to urge the union not to call strikes and to wait for the report of a review into the fire service, which is expected in December.

The Fire Service Minister Nick Raynsford warned that lives would be put at risk by strikes and repeated that the 40% claim was "fantasy, not fairness."

But the FBU general secretary Andy Gilchrist said the union continued to have no faith in the review and would not co–operate.

He was expecting an "overwhelming" vote for industrial action which would "force" the union to call strike dates.

The union won support today from Nicky Gavron, the Deputy Mayor of London, who said: "There is absolutely no doubt they are poorly paid for the valuable and dangerous work they do. It should not have to take a major incident to realise how important firefighters are.

"The employers should be allowed to resume negotiations to resolve this dispute."

The facts in brief:

* The Fire Brigades Union (FBU) has rejected a 4% pay offer and is seeking a near–40% rise to take salaries to £30,000 a year. Employers have claimed that if all public sector workers demanded a 40% increase, the basic rate of income tax would have to be increased by 20% or 3.9p in the pound.

* Strikes will lead to ageing military Green Goddesses being used to tackle fires across the UK for the first time in 25 years.

* An inquiry into the fire service has been set up by the Government in an attempt to head off strikes. The inquiry is expected to report in mid–December and the Government has urged the FBU not to call strikes until the findings are known.

* Thousands of firefighters have to claim the working families tax credit because their pay is so low, the union argues.

* Pay rises in the service are linked to a formula agreed after the only national strike by firefighters, in 1977. Army Green Goddesses were used to answer emergency calls for nine weeks during the action.

* The union wants the 1977 formula, which links rises to those of male industrial workers, replaced by a new system.

* Green Goddesses, built in the 1950s and 1960s for civil defence purposes in the event of war, have a top speed of 50mph.

* The firefighters' industrial action follows recent walkouts by council employees and rail workers.