AMBULANCE worker members of the GMB, Unite and Unison unions will take national strike action on 21st December, with paramedics, emergency care assistants, call handlers and other staff walking out.
Announcing the action, Rachel Harrison, GMB National Secretary, said: ‘After twelve years of Conservative cuts to the service and their pay packets, NHS staff have had enough.
‘The last thing they want to do is take strike action, but the government has left them with no choice.
‘Steve Barclay needs to listen and engage with us about pay. If he can’t talk to us about this most basic workforce issue, what on earth is he Health Secretary for?
‘The government could stop this strike in a heartbeat – but they need to wake up and start negotiating on pay.’
The coordinated walkout by the three main ambulance unions – Unison, GMB and Unite – will affect non-life threatening calls only.
It comes as Royal College of Nursing members are also preparing to go on strike on 15 and 20 December in parts of England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Unison head of health Sara Gorton said: ‘The government will only have itself to blame if there are strikes in the NHS before Christmas.
‘Ambulance staff and their health colleagues don’t want to inconvenience anyone. But ministers are refusing to do the one thing that could prevent disruption – that’s start genuine talks about pay.
‘Wages are too low to stop health workers quitting the NHS.
‘As more and more hand in their notice, there are fewer staff left to care for patients. The public knows that’s the reason behind lengthy waits.’
Unite said its healthcare members are warning the NHS is on ‘life support’ and that without serious investment to stem the recruitment and retention crisis and save failing services it may not survive.
The workers perform roles in nursing, healthcare, science, counselling, psychology, dentistry, pharmacology, audiology, optometry, administration, IT and building maintenance services.
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: ‘Anyone who has had the misfortune to be taken to hospital in an ambulance or spent far too long waiting for treatment knows the NHS is in a fight for its life.
‘Burnt out low paid staff, who have seen their wages attacked every year for more than a decade, are leaving in droves.
‘The NHS is on life support and without proper pay and funding it may not survive.
‘Make no mistake, we are now in the fight of our lives for the very NHS itself. These strikes are a stark warning – our members are taking a stand to save our NHS from this government.
‘Patients’ lives are already at risk but this government is sitting on the sidelines, dodging its responsibility to sort out the crisis that it has created.’
Jason Kirkham, a Unite member and a paramedic in the West Midlands added: ‘This strike isn’t just about pay – it is to save the NHS. The NHS is crumbling we can’t recruit and retain staff as pay is so low.
‘It has got so bad that we have had to open a food bank in my ambulance
station.’
