News Desk - revised 5:30pm BST

The Chairman of the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority Brian Coleman AM and current Mayor of Barnet has waded into the dispute with the FBU who are threatening strike action with a statement from his office and said the Fire Brigade Unions vote to strike as "Turkeys Voting for Christmas"

Commenting further Brian Coleman AM said,

"This dispute is over nothing and the only people who will suffer will be the firefighter’s families who will be hit in their wage packets.

"It is like turkeys voting for Christmas"

The Fire Brigades Union responded with the following statement:

"The action is in response to a sustained period of aggression by London Fire Brigade managers, which has seen attacks to a number of conditions of service. Brigade managers and union leaders attended two full days of talks, which stretched late into the night, but the brigade was not prepared to concede the union’s demands.

Speaking after the talks breakdown, the union’s regional secretary, Joe MacVeigh, said, “We have tried to resolve matters peacefully and sensibly, just as our members would expect us to do. But the reality is that we have a very clear and justified set of demands, and the brigade hasn’t met them."

“We were in talks until eleven o’clock last night [Monday], so no one can accuse us of pulling the trigger prematurely. We have made genuine efforts to reach agreement, but we are not prepared to settle at any price. We have legitimate objections to a number of issues that are having, or will have, a detrimental impact on our members, such as CPD, subsistence, the drugs and alcohol policy, camp-out bases, targeted-calling, light duties and the booking of leave."

Firefighters in London are set to commence a strike on 13th August 2009 if a deal is not agreed.

photo credit: London Daily News - Brian Coleman