Almost 2,000 ambulance workers in the North West are starting to vote on strike action.
The GMB union has said workers are angry over the Government’s four per cent pay award and low staffing levels.
More than 15,000 ambulance workers across 10 trusts in England and Wales will join the service alongside thousands more NHS workers who will be balloted for the strike action, with more votes set to follow.
Rachel Harrison, GMB acting national secretary, said: “Ambulance workers don’t do this lightly – and this would be the biggest ambulance strike for 30 years. But more than ten years of pay cuts, plus the cost-of-living crisis, means workers can’t make ends meet. They are desperate.
“But this is much more about patient safety at least as much about pay with delays up to 26 hours and 135,000 vacancies across the NHS. Ambulance workers have been telling the Government for years things are unsafe. No one is listening. What else can they do?”
The ballot opens today October 24 and closes on 29 November. Strike action as a result of the voting could take place before Christmas. The ballots follow consultative votes across all the trusts in which workers strongly voted in favour of the strike.
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesman said: “We value the hard work of NHS staff and are working hard to support them – including by giving over one million NHS workers a pay rise of at least £1,400 this year. Industrial action is a matter for unions, and we urge them to carefully consider the potential impacts on patients.”
The North West Ambulance Service covers the communities of Cumbria, Lancashire, Greater Manchester, Merseyside, Cheshire and Glossop, Derbyshire.
