More than 10,000 ambulance workers have voted to strike across nine areas of the UK including Wales, the GMB union has announced. Paramedics and all other staff of the ambulance service are set to walk out before Christmas in a dispute over pay and conditions.
Almost 1,500 Welsh Ambulance Service workers have voted to strike. It comes after the Welsh Government announced that most NHS staff would be entitled to a pay increase of £1,400, amounting to a pay increase of 7.5% for lower paid staff in bands 1-4, and an increase of 4% for staff in bands 6-7.
Staff at eight other ambulance trusts have backed industrial action over the UK Government's offer of a 4% pay increase, which GMB has described as a "massive real-terms pay cut" with inflation at 11.1% as of data from October.
A spokesman for the union said: "No-one in the health service takes strike action lightly – today shows just how desperate they are." Paramedics, emergency care assistants, call handlers, and other staff are set to walk out in these trusts:
Welsh Ambulance Service
- South West Ambulance Service
- South East Coast Ambulance Service
- North West Ambulance Service
- South Central Ambulance Service
- North East Ambulance Service
- East Midlands Ambulance Service
- West Midlands Ambulance Service
- Yorkshire Ambulance Service
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The industrial action is due to take place before Christmas. GMB is planning to meet representatives in the coming days to discuss potential dates.
"Ambulance workers, like other NHS workers, are on their knees," said the union's national secretary Rachel Harrison. "Demoralised and downtrodden, they've faced 12 years of Conservative [UK Government] cuts to the service and their pay packets, fought on the front line of a global pandemic, and now face the worst cost of living crisis in a generation."
A Welsh Government spokesperson said: “We recognise why so many ambulance workers voted the way they did and the anger and disappointment many public sector workers are feeling at the moment. We believe our emergency services should be fairly rewarded for their important work but our current financial settlement falls far short of what is needed to meet the very significant challenges faced by our public services and workers across Wales. We value social partnership and we continue to meet the trade unions to discuss a range of issues affecting the workforce.”
Welsh Conservative Shadow Health Minister Russell George MS said: “It is disappointing to see some unions vote to strike meaning we will see ambulance service staff stop working during the winter. But let there be no doubt that, in Wales, it was the pay offer of the Labour Government in Cardiff Bay that was rejected [by the Welsh Ambulance Service] – anybody, including unions, that seek to lay the blame at the door of someone else is doing the public and striking workers an injustice.
"Nurses have already voted to strike in all but one health board in Wales and it is astonishing the Labour Health Minister has still not met with them to negotiate – hopefully the case won’t be the same for ambulance workers. Patients and staff need action from the Labour Government to bring this situation to a swift and fair resolution and I urge them get around the negotiating table now.”
It comes after up to 100,000 nursing staff voted to take part in their first and biggest ever UK-wide strike as the NHS pay row deepens. Members of the Royal College of Nursing in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland voted for industrial action which will take place on December 15 and 20. You can read more of the latest NHS news here.
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