Unite announces further ambulance and hospital staff strikes

New strikes by ambulance and hospital staff have been announced in an ongoing dispute over pay as well as safe staffing levels in the NHS.

Unite members at West Midlands Ambulance Service will take action on Monday 12 June.

Workers at Birmingham’s City Hospital and Christie Hospital in Manchester are set to walk out on Wednesday.

That action is set to coincide with the British Medical Association junior doctors’ strike.

Union members at the Yorkshire Ambulance Service will also walk out on 23 and 26 June.

The government reached a pay settlement with one million health workers in May, including with GMB and Unison members, but the deal was not backed by Unite.

Under that deal, staff will get a 5% pay rise plus a one-off sum of at least £1,655.

The union’s 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.

The government has previously said the demands were unaffordable.

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