Fire union says strike is no bluff

Firefighters yesterday warned strike action would start this week unless a "genuine and significant" pay offer was made by 9am on Wednesday.

The Fire Brigades Union has threatened eight days of industrial action unless a "serious" response is made to its demand for a 40 per cent pay rise, which would take firefighters' salaries to £30,000.

Talks ended in deadlock last Thursday amid union suggestions that the employers did not appreciate the gravity of the situation and with the suspicion in Whitehall that talk of a strike was bluff.

A union source said: "There is no question of this being a bluff because we have a nine to one vote in favour of strike action on an 83 per cent turn-out."The employers' side is understood to feel it will have enough to offer from the Bain review to keep the union talking.