FURTHER firefighters' strikes are not inevitable despite the Fire Brigades' Union pay offer rejection according to a local Union representative.

Ralph Twiss, the FBU representative for Wigan and Bolton, said the recent offer was unacceptable, and complained that "strings" attached to the proposed deal would worsen working conditions.

He said he had spoken to nearly two thirds of the borough's firefighters and the main stumbling block was not the 16 per cent pay offer but planned "modernisation" of working practice.

He said the deal would mean management could tell firefighters where and when to work and at short notice.

But he told the Journal that firefighters hoped a compromise could be reached in the long running pay dispute -- and strike action could be avoided.

"The problem with the pay offer was not the 16 per cent pay increase, but the small print within the offer which the management want to introduce.

"We would become Martini firefighters - being told where to work any time, any place, anywhere. If we accepted the deal we could be told to work in any fire station in Greater Manchester without much notice, and that is not acceptable.

"We're not naive about the current situation in Iraq. If we do go on strike while there's a war on we could lose public support but we cannot give up and accept this offer," the official said.