UK union Unite has announced a series of further ambulance worker strikes in the coming weeks, escalating the crisis in Britain’s health service.
The union said on Friday that members would strike on Thursday next week, as well as seven dates in February and two in March. Not all regions of the UK will be affected by all of the strikes.
On Wednesday, unions warned that industrial action by ambulance staff could continue until Easter if there was no progress from Rishi Sunak’s government on this year’s NHS pay deal.
The GMB union said more than 10,000 of its members at eight ambulance trusts in England and Wales would stage four more national strikes on February 6 and 20 and March 6 and 20. It added that there would be walkouts in the West Midlands on January 23 and in the north-west of England on January 24.
Unions say that NHS staff have been offered an average 4.75 per cent pay rise with all workers guaranteed at least £1,400, as recommended by the NHS Pay Review Body, which is less than half the rate of inflation.
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “It’s this government’s disastrous handling of the NHS that has brought it to breaking point. And as crisis piles on crisis, the prime minister is seen to be ‘washing his hands’ of the dispute. What a disgrace. What an abdication of leadership.”
