Ambulance workers are to vote on strike action today in what could be their biggest strike for 30 years.
Workers are “angry” at the government’s four per cent pay award – which they claim is a real terms pay cut – as well as “unsafe staffing levels” across the service.
More than 15,000 ambulance staff across 11 trusts in England and Wales begin voting on strike action today.
Thousands more NHS workers will also be balloted across other NHS trusts, with more votes set to follow.
Rachel Harrison, GMB acting national secretary, said: “Ambulance workers don’t do this lightly - and this would be the biggest ambulance strike for 30 years.
"But more than ten years of pay cuts, plus the cost-of-living crisis, means workers can’t make ends meet. They are desperate.
"But this is much more about patient safety at least as much about pay. Delays up to 26 hours and 135,000 vacancies across the NHS mean a third of GMB ambulance workers think a delay they’ve been involved with has led to a death.
“Ambulance workers have been telling the government for years things are unsafe. No one is listening. What else can they do?”
The vote closes on November 29.
If the strike goes ahead, the NHS will work with providers, professional bodies and trade unions to agree a safe level of cover during any period of industrial action.
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesman said: “We value the hard work of NHS staff and are working hard to support them – including by giving over one million NHS workers a pay rise of at least £1,400 this year.
“Industrial action is a matter for unions, and we urge them to carefully consider the potential impacts on patients.”
The last ambulance strike was over pay in September 1989.
The full list of ambulance services being balloted are:
- East of England Ambulance Service
- East Midlands Ambulance Service
- London Ambulance Service
- North East Ambulance Service
- Norh West Ambulance Service
- South Central Ambulance Service
- South East Coast Ambulance Service
- South West Ambulance Service
- Welsh Ambulance Service
- West Midlands Ambulance Service
- Yorkshire Ambulance Service
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