A union leader has said Essex firefighters will "have no choice" but to vote for strike action if a dispute over pay and modernisation is not settled.
Regional Fire Brigades' Union (FBU) secretary Graham Noakes was speaking after firefighters across the county received ballot papers for industrial action.
The FBU put an end to national strikes - which had left soldiers in Green Goddess engines to fight blazes - after agreeing a deal for a pay increase along with modernisation of the service.
But talks have broken down and Mr Noakes said an official pledge to raise wages had not been honoured.
He said: "We shouldn't have to be in this position. At the end of the national strike we had an agreement which the employers have failed to honour."
The deal to pay firefighters a 3.5 per cent rise from last November and another 4.2 per cent from last month was scuppered by a row over bank holiday working.
Local authority employers, including Essex County Council, want bank holidays to be treated as a normal working day by the fire service, with no extra pay.
But the FBU claims this is unfair.
Published Thursday August 12, 2004
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