Thousands of ambulance workers are being balloted on whether to strike by the GMB from today (Monday 24 October), the union said.
The GMB said that it was balloting more than 15,000 staff at 11 NHS trusts from today until Tuesday 29 November.
The South East Coat Ambulance Service is among the NHS trusts in which the GMB is balloting members.
The union said: “Workers are angry over the government’s imposed 4 per cent pay award – another massive real-terms pay cut – as well as unsafe staffing levels across the ambulance service.”
The GMB’s acting national secretary Rachel Harrison said: “Ambulance workers don’t do this lightly – and this would be the biggest ambulance strike for 30 years.
“But more than 10 years of pay cuts, plus the cost-of-living crisis, means that workers can’t make ends meet. They are desperate.
“But this is much more about patient safety at least as much about pay. Delays up to 26 hours and 135,000 vacancies across the NHS mean a third of GMB ambulance workers think a delay they’ve been involved with has led to a death.
“Ambulance workers have been telling the government for years things are unsafe. No one is listening. What else can they do?”
