More than 2,600 ambulance workers from Unite to join existing strike

Christina McAnea, the general secretary of Unison, at a picket line outside the Waterloo ambulance station in London on 21 December. Photograph: Niklas Halle’n/AFP/Getty Images

More than 2,600 additional ambulance workers plan to strike in late January over pay, the trade union Unite announced on Friday.

Unite’s members will join colleagues belonging to Unison in striking on 23 January, with hospital bosses calling for “serious talks” between the government and unions to avoid “even more pressure on already overstretched NHS services”.