West Midlands Ambulance Service staff to strike at Christmas over pay row

More than 3,000 ambulance workers are due to go on strike before and after Christmas. GMB union members at West Midlands Ambulance Service (WMAS) will be among those to walk out across the Midlands Paramedics, Emergency Care Assistants, call handlers and other staff will strike on Wednesday, December 21, and Wednesday, December 28. WMAS workers are set to strike from 12.01am – 11.59pm each day, while colleagues in the East Midlands will walk out from from 6am – 5.59am each day.

They say that the strike action is as a result of the government’s imposed four per cent pay award, which union bosses say is massive real terms pay cut. GMB representatives have said that will now meet with both trusts to discuss requirements for life and limb cover. READ MORE: Coca Cola Christmas Truck Tour coming to Coventry

Rachel Harrison, GMB National Secretary, said: “Ambulance workers – like other NHS workers – are on their knees. Demoralised and downtrodden, they’ve faced 12 years of Conservative cuts to the service and their pay packets, fought on the frontline of a global pandemic and now face the worst cost of living crisis in a generation. “No-one in the NHS takes strike action lightly – today shows just how desperate they are.

This is as much about unsafe staffing levels and patient safety as it is about pay. A third of GMB ambulance workers think delays they’ve been involved with have led to the death of a patient. “Something has to change or the service as we know it will collapse.

GMB calls on the government to avoid a winter of NHS strikes by negotiating a pay award that these workers deserve.” CoventryLive has contacted WMAS about the strike announcement. News about the ambulance staff strikes follows the announcement that Royal College of Nursing members are also set to stage walk outs.

READ NEXT: