Ambulance workers in Cornwall to vote on strike action over pay
This will be the first strike they have had in decades
Today, over 15,000 ambulance workers from the GMB union across 11 trusts in England and Wales will vote on strike action against pay - including in Cornwall.
This will be the first strike they have had in decades.
Members are “angry at the Governments 4% pay award which they believe is below the level of inflation and “they have had enough.”
The ballot opens today and closes on 29 November, and any potential strike action could take place before Christmas says GMB union.
As well the 15,000 ambulance workers, thousands more members across other NHS trusts will also be balloted, the GMB union have said.
The ballots follow votes across all the trusts in which workers voted strongly in favour of moving to a formal strike ballot.
4% pay award will lead to "real-terms pay cut"
The GMB said its members are angry over the Government’s 4% pay award, which it said leaves them facing “another massive real-terms pay cut”.
National officer Rachel Harrison said: “Ambulance workers have just had enough.
“They’ve not been on strike in decades but they are at the end of what they can take.
“Pay has been systematically slashed for more than 10 years and we now face the worst cost-of-living crush in a generation.
“Meanwhile vacancies are at record highs and we have the worst A&E delays ever – and it’s not even the winter flu season yet.
“This is about more than pay and conditions. Cuts and shortages mean GMB members feel they are unable to deliver safe standards of patient care.
“Things can’t go on like this – something has to give.”
What's it like on the frontline?
One paramedic has been speaking to us anonymously about what working on the frontline is like at the moment: "Sometimes when we have critically unwell patients, the hospitals are so full at the minute we can't get them into the hospital as quick as we'd like to sometimes.
"Which it's not the best situation for them, it's not the best standard of care that we can offer, or should be offering.
"We're just stuck in this situation which is just getting worse and worse, it's emotionally draining."
He told us it's not just about pay: "It's really heartbreaking for all of us, because it's not a situation that any one person or any clinician or even manager can solve.
"The hospitals just aren't big enough.
"There aren't enough ambulances, there aren't enough paramedics, there aren't enough nurses, there aren't enough doctors.
"And that's just all compiling into this situation that we have here at the minute.
"We all love our job and when we're waiting outside of the hospital we're wasting our time.
"We want to be out there attending the next patient, going to the next job, and helping them, but we can't do that because we've still got our patient in the back of the ambulance that we need to offload to hospital.
"It's incredibly frustrating because there's nothing we can do."
The ambulance trusts where GMB members will be balloted are:
- London Ambulance Service NHS Trust
- East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust
- East Midlands Ambulance Service NHS Trust
- West Midlands Ambulance Service NHS Trust
- North East Ambulance Service Trust
- Yorkshire Ambulance Service NHS Trust
- North West Ambulance Service NHS Trust
- South Central Ambulance Service
- South East Coast Ambulance Service
- South Western Ambulance Service
- Welsh Ambulance Service NHS Trust.
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson 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."
For more information, please visit the GMB union website.
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