GMB members vote to strike across England and Wales

The union announced today that it had received a mandate to strike across four hospital trusts, one mental health trust, the national NHS Blood and Transplant service, and nine ambulance services.

Nurses are thought to be among members who will strike if it does happen in the coming weeks.

“Something has to change or the service as we know it will collapse”

Rachel Harrison

Also set to strike are more than 10,000 GMB ambulance workers, including paramedics, emergency care assistants, call handlers and other staff.

GMB said it would now meet with representatives in the coming days to discuss potential strike dates, set to take place before Christmas.

Like other unions across the UK, GMB members across these NHS employers have voted to strike over the recent pay awards offered by the UK governments for 2022-23.

Commenting on the results, GMB national secretary, Rachel Harrison, said ambulance workers and other NHS staff “are on their knees”.

She said: “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.”

Ms Harrison added that “no one in the NHS takes strike action lightly” and that today’s result showed just how desperate staff were.

“This is as much about unsafe staffing levels and patient safety as it is about pay,” she said.

Ms Harrison added: “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.”

This comes in the same week that some Unison health workers also voted to strike over pay, as the union received a mandate to strike at two trusts in Liverpool and multiple ambulance services across England.

Meanwhile the Royal College of Nursing also announced this week the first set of locations across the UK which will see nurse strike action on 15 and 20 December.

When asked to comment on the fact that GMB workers had voted to strike, the Department of Health and Social Care pointed to a previous statement from Mr Barclay.

In it, he said: “I’m hugely grateful for the hard work and dedication of NHS staff and deeply regret some will be taking industrial action – which is in nobody’s best interests as we approach a challenging winter.

“Our economic circumstances mean unions’ demands are not affordable – each additional 1% pay rise for all staff on the Agenda for Change contract would cost around £700m a year.”

The government had implemented the independent pay review body recommendations for 2022-23, said Mr Barclay.

He added that emergency patient services would continue to operate in the event of strikes, and that his door “remains open” to unions.

A Welsh Government spokesperson said: “We recognise why so many ambulance workers voted the way they did and the anger and disappointment many public sector workers are feeling at the moment.

“We believe our emergency services should be fairly rewarded for their important work but our current financial settlement falls far short of what is needed to meet the very significant challenges faced by our public services and workers across Wales.”

They said they would continue to meet with trade unions “to discuss a range of issues affecting the workforce”.