East Yorkshire Paramedics Balloted Over Strike Action
The last time there was a strike in the ambulance service was in 1989.
Paramedics in East Yorkshire could be about to go on strike for the first time in nearly 30 years.
Hundreds of Unison members are being balloted over whether to take industrial action in a long-standing dispute over pay.
It comes as Yorkshire Ambulance Service are already struggling with paramedic numbers.
Yesterday - we told you how the service is looking to recruit more frontline staff to tackle a national shortage of paramedics.
Unison regional officer Ray Gray says they don't take strike action lightly but feel they have no other option. He told Viking:
"There are a lot of people leaving the service and paramedics are leaving in droves because the pay isn't good, the hours aren't good and the work is very demanding so they need to put that right and the starting point has got to be paying them the right grade.
"Paramedics have been in this dispute since 2004, it's a long, long time and they've made very little in the way of progress. The difference between the pay grades is quite significant, it's something like £5,000 and that's a lot of money. If they want to keep paramedics and get them to stay in the service and recruit more, then they've got to pay them right and currently they're not."
If strike action does go ahead, it'll be the first time industrial action has been taken in the ambulance service since 1989.