West Midlands ambulance workers take to the pickets in battle over pay and safe staffing levels
Ambulance workers in the West Midlands are taking to the pickets today as Unite once again embarks on industrial action.
The union is calling on the government to re-open pay negotiations amid a real terms pay cut for NHS workers and a recruitment and retention crisis.
Union members in the West Midlands will be striking from 6am until 12pm and then 6pm until 11.59pm today.
Members will be picketing outside the ambulance station in Burton Road, Dudley, at these times, while there will also be picket lines in Erdington and Coventry.
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."
Union members at the Christie Hospital in Manchester and the City Hospital in Birmingham will also strike on Wednesday, June 14 to coincide with the British Medical Association (BMA) junior doctor's strike.
Unite’s members at the Yorkshire Ambulance Service will take strike action on Friday, June 23 and Monday, June 26.
