The United Firefighters Union wants the authority board to sign a new agreement, which would give the union increased power over the authority and its personnel.

However the authority board this week rejected the agreement because it believes certain clauses are unlawful, as they give the union veto power over resources and staff.

Union secretary Peter Marshall has called on Premier Daniel Andrews to approve the new enterprise bargaining agreement, and criticised the authority board for dragging out the agreement debate.

The Victorian Farmers Federation has started a petition calling on the state government not to sign the agreement.

President Peter Tuohey said rural Victoria relied on the Country Fire Authority, and the government needed to stand up to the union to ensure it did not take over.

“Given the majority of the state’s farmers are volunteer firefighters, it’s not surprising that we’ve seen an outpouring of support for the authority,” he said.

“It’s volunteers who deliver the surge capacity needed to fight the state’s major fires, such as Ash Wednesday and Black Saturday.”

Mr Tuohey said the authority board had good reason to reject the agreement with the union.

He said the union had made absurd demands that could cause up to 60,000 volunteers to leave the Country Fire Authority.

He said this would lead to a massive blow-out in the Fire Services Property Levy.

“The cost of running the authority will skyrocket and so will our levy rates if this union deal goes ahead,” he said.

“The agreement states the authority must employ another 509 career firefighters by June 30, 2019.

“We need the Department of Treasury and Finance to do a full cost analysis of this draft agreement.

“All we’ve heard so far is estimates the authority’s budget will jump from $500 million to anywhere between $690 million to $1.2 billion.

“I think we need an analysis that includes all the costs of the agreement, given all country Victorians will have to foot the bill.”

Mr Tuohey said people could visit http://us4.campaign-archive1.com/?u=5381a2f70092cc72dd15e5fdd&id=d6210e1256 to sign the petition.