Unite announces new ambulance and hospital strikes as NHS pay and safe staffing dispute intensifies

Unite’s members at the West Midlands Ambulance Service will take strike action on Monday 12 June. This will be followed by union members at the Christie hospital in Manchester and the City Hospital in Birmingham, who will take strike action on Wednesday 14 June to coincide with the British Medical Association (BMA) junior doctor’s strike. Unite’s members at the Yorkshire Ambulance Service will also take strike action on Friday 23 June and Monday 26 June betweween 3pm and 10pm.

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “Unite will continue to escalate its industrial action until the government returns to the negotiating table and makes NHS workers a fair pay offer.

“Our members are clear that a decade of real terms pay cuts and under investment is undermining the future of the NHS. The pay offer put forward by the government does nothing to address the recruitment and retention crisis of staff which is promoting the current staff exodus. Ministers must know that.”

Unite is continuing to maintain industrial action in the NHS after members voted in April to reject the government’s pay offer.

The union is calling on the government to re-open negotiations as the present deal is a further real terms pay cut for NHS workers. The recruitment and retention crisis facing the NHS continues to worsen due to a combination of soaring living costs and low wages.

Unite is also escalating its industrial action and is balloting members in a greater number of trusts to join the dispute. These ballots will be highlighting both pay and the recruitment and retention crisis which is undermining the NHS and affecting patient safety.

Unite national lead officer Onay Kasab said: “Unite’s members are prepared to stand up and be counted in their fight for fair pay and safe staffing levels. As the dispute escalates there will be further industrial action in the coming weeks and months.”

*Unite is the UK and Ireland’s leading union fighting to protect and advance jobs, pay and conditions for members working across all sectors of the economy. The general secretary is Sharon Graham.