Nurses in Liverpool belonging to the union Unison will return to the picket line next week alongside other NHS colleagues to demand improvements to their pay and working conditions.
Strikes involving staff from Liverpool University Hospitals and the Liverpool Heart and Chest NHS foundation trusts will take place on Monday, 23 January.
Unison members from the same trusts also went on strike on 21 December. Nursing Times spoke with a number of the nurses taking part in those strikes and they warned that they were prepared to walk out again if necessary.
Also striking from Unison on Monday will be ambulance staff from five services in England – London, Yorkshire, the North West, North East and South West.
The strikes are part of the wider NHS pay dispute between the government and health unions over the below-inflation awards issued for staff for 2022-23.
Joe Baldwin, chair of the Unison Liverpool Hospitals Health Branch, told Nursing Times that members were striking again because they felt they had not yet been heard by the government.
“Members and I are overworked, underpaid and at breaking point,” said Mr Baldwin, who has been a clinical nursing assistant for 18 years.
“We are stretched to the maximum and members do not have the energy any longer.
“Something has to give, sadly it will be the NHS if the government does not act immediately and put NHS pay right.”
Liverpool University Hospitals and Liverpool Heart and Chest NHS were the only non-ambulance trusts where Unison achieved a mandate to strike.
However, the union is the process of re-balloting several trusts where the required numbers were only narrowly missed during the first ballots.
These trusts include Great Ormond Street Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, Liverpool Women’s Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, The Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust and Bridgewater Community Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, as well as the NHS Blood and Transplant service.
Unison is also re-balloting five ambulance services in England and one in Wales over whether they want to strike.
The ballots started on 6 January and will continue until 16 February.
“Members and I are overworked, underpaid and at breaking point”
Joe Baldwin
Ambulance workers from the union Unite are also set to walk out on Monday next week.
The union said more than 2,600 ambulance workers from the West Midlands, North West, North East, East Midlands and Wales will be striking.
Unite today announced 10 further dates that ambulance workers will be striking over the coming weeks and months in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
The dates included 6 February, which is set to be the biggest ever NHS strike in history as nursing staff from the Royal College of Nursing and ambulance workers from GMB will also striking.
Unite national lead officer Onay Kasab said: “The resolution to this dispute is in the government’s hands.
“This dispute will only be resolved when it enters into proper negotiations about the current pay dispute.”