Another 10 000 British ambulance workers have voted to strike this month as GMB, a member-led trade union and the biggest in the sector, joins the string of other unions announcing NHS winter walk-outs to protest minimal pay rises and working conditions.
Up to 100 000 nurses are expected to walk-out on 15 and 20 December, and now paramedics, emergency care assistants and 999 call handlers are among staff at nine trusts in England and Wales who will also take action, reports Daily Mail.
The announcement comes after Unison said last week that 80 000 of its members, including ambulance staff, also voted in favour of walk-outs.
A senior NHS official has warned that the action – which will be the first of its kind in 30 years – will leave response times 'incredibly stretched'.
Saffron Cordery, interim chief executive of NHS Providers, said NHS trusts would do all they could to mitigate risks to patients. But she warned the health service was already experiencing a challenging time.
GMB said workers were striking over the government’s 4% pay award, which it described as another “massive real-terms pay cut”.
The union, accused of plotting co-ordinated walk-outs this winter with other striking organisations, will meet with reps over the coming days to discuss potential dates before Christmas.
Rachel Harrison, GMB national secretary, said: “Ambulance workers – like other NHS workers – are on their knees. Demoralised and downtrodden, they’ve faced twelve years of Conservative cuts to the service and their pay packets, fought on the frontline of a global pandemic, and now face the worst cost-of-living crisis in a generation.
“No one in the NHS takes strike action lightly. This decision shows just how desperate they are. This is as much about unsafe staffing levels and patient safety as it is about pay. A third of GMB ambulance workers think delays they’ve been involved with have led to the death of a patient.
“Something has to change or the service as we know it will collapse. GMB calls on the government to avoid a winter of NHS strikes by negotiating a pay award that these workers deserve.”
Health Secretary Steve Barclay condemned the action, preceding “a challenging winter”, and claimed union pay demands are “not affordable”.
“I’m hugely grateful for the hard work and dedication of NHS staff and deeply regret some will be taking industrial action …but our economic circumstances mean unions’ demands are not affordable. Each additional 1% pay rise for all staff on the Agenda for Change contract would cost around £700m a year.”
He said the government had “prioritised the NHS with record funding” and accepted a recommendation from an independent body to award more than 1m NHS workers a pay rise of at least £1 400 per year.
This means those on the lowest salaries will receive a pay increase of up to 9.3%, on top of the 3% awarded last year through public sector pay freezes and government cost-of-living support.
Cordery, meanwhile, who is interim chief executive of NHS Providers, said strikes could leave ambulance response times “incredibly stretched”.
On 1 November, almost 90% of GMB members in the ambulance service for NHS Scotland also voted in favour of industrial action.
Karen Leonard, GMB Scotland Organiser, said: “This a direct response to the government that more must be done to properly value NHS workers and the services they deliver, not just to confront the cost-of-living crisis this winter, but also to tackle the understaffing crisis in our frontline services that’s left staff utterly exhausted and increasingly angry.”
She added that the “understaffing crisis” has been “understood for years and left unchallenged, only for COVID to expose and exacerbate the chronic shortfalls”.
Britain’s last nationwide strike involving paramedics took place in the winter of 1989 to 1990, and the government was forced to call upon the army, police and volunteer drivers.
Armed Forces personnel could again drive ambulances and stand in for frontline hospital workers during the NHS strikes, it was claimed this week.
Nurse strikes are scheduled for 15 and 20 December, with up to 100 000 staff expected to take part across 76 locations. Health bosses warn strikes will put lives at risk and force them to cancel tests and operations as a record 7.1m people are on waiting lists.
Unions must provide two weeks’ notice for any industrial action, meaning an ambulance strike could conceivably take place in mid-December or during the Christmas and New Year period.
Unison is calling for action on pay and a big rise in staff numbers, warning that unless these things happen, services will continue to decline.
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