Flanked by more than 80 firefighters, Mr Skarratts spoke at last night's meeting of Liverpool City Council in the town hall.
He said: "Talks are taking place between ourselves and the fire service. The first meeting was on Saturday was extremely positive.
"There was a lot of movement from both sides. Two of the four points had reached closure and two of them were very close.
"Unfortunately, when talks resumed on Monday, things were very different. The management had taken a very hard stance. We discovered that even more ground had been lost.
"We believe there is a reason. We believe the negotiator was advised, he was 'got at'."
It was revealed that the National Joint Council (NJC) will now be brought in to mediate between the fire service and the union.
The Daily Post revealed fire authority member Cllr Dave Hanratty called for the NJC to be called in, but chief fire officer Tony McGuirk insisted it would not be necessary.
Yesterday Andy Dark, FBU assistant general secretary and one of the National Joint Secretaries, said: "I am concerned that some within the fire authority are making public statements suggesting we are reluctant to assist on Merseyside.
"Helping to resolve disputes is what we are here to do. The National Joint Secretaries have helped resolve local disputes across the country for years. The last one was in Hertfordshire which involved many of the same issues as the dispute in Merseyside.
"Not only am I not reluctant, I do not detect any reluctance by the national employers' joint secretary. There is no question that if we can assist on Merseyside we will."
A fire service spokesman insisted Friday's meeting with staff and fire authority members is strictly a debriefing. He said: "It will just be a speech by chief fire office Tony McGuirk. We had to book rooms at Aintree, purely because we do not have enough space at the fire headquarters.
"We are always ready to go into talks with the FBU."
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