NHS ambulance workers vote to strike
Members of the GMB union of NHS workers have voted overwhelmingly in favour of taking strike action on 13 October.
Of the ambulance staff who voted, 78 per cent cast their ballot in favour of a walk-out, which will take place between 7:00am and 11:00am. Furthermore, 91 per cent voted for action short of a strike.
The ballot was held in reaction to the government's pay policies. NHS staff have been promised a one per cent rise.
Brian Strutton, GMB National Secretary for Public Services, said:
Nobody in the NHS wants to go on strike, but the anger and frustration of the workforce with the cavalier treatment by government and employers towards them has spilled over into industrial unrest.
GMB and the other trade unions on the staff side hope this programme of action will get some movement in this deadlock and we will plan further periods of action through the autumn and winter if it does not.
So it is imperative that Jeremy Hunt, the Secretary of State, meets the staff side unions as a matter of urgency.