WA job cuts could mean more fires: unions

Job cuts at Western Australia's electricity utility will result in higher prices, less reliable services and increased bushfire danger, unions say.

Representatives from the Australian Services Union and the Electrical Trades Union met in Perth on Tuesday, a day after Western Power announced more than 200 jobs would go by May as the state government seeks to privatise the poles and wires operator.

ETU WA branch secretary Les McLaughlan warned WA was at risk of making the same mistakes as Victoria before the Black Saturday bushfires.

"The royal commission into Victoria's Black Saturday bushfires, which left 173 people dead, found that faulty privatised power lines were responsible for causing five of the most devastating blazes," Mr McLaughlan said.