Essex firefighters vote to strike over budget cuts

FIREFIGHTERS in Essex are to strike next Monday after voting overwhelmingly to take industrial action in protest at budget cuts, their union announced yesterday. Military Green Goddess fire engines will be drafted in as emergency cover during the four-hour strike from 10am.

Members of the county's Fire Brigades' Union backed industrial action by 642 votes to 272, a majority of 70 per cent.

The union is protesting at plans to cut more than pounds 1m from the authority's budget, which will lead to job losses.

An FBU spokesman said: "The prospect of strike action is now a reality unless the Essex fire authority comes to its senses and uses some of its pounds 28m reserves to settle this dispute."

Green Goddesses were used in Essex a year ago during a strike against cuts by the union.

Ken Cameron, general secretary of the FBU, said: "This dispute and the industrial action it now brings is totally as a result of the crass stubbornness of the Essex Fire Authority in not using a small proportion of the pounds 26m they have in reserve." The Essex Fire Authority made no comment.