UK paramedics walk out and join wave of strikes – Action News Jax

LONDON — (AP) — About 25,000 British paramedics went on strike Wednesday, walking out for the second time since December in an ongoing dispute with the government over pay.

The industrial action by paramedics, drivers and call handlers was the latest in a wave of strikes in recent months that has brought the country’s rail network to a standstill on some days and strained the country’s overburdened public health system. UK.

Health officials have warned that the impact of Wednesday’s strike will be worse than that of December as more staff, including call handlers, leave. People have been advised to call in life-threatening emergencies – such as cardiac arrest or a serious road accident – and ambulances will still respond to such situations.

But less urgent cases will not be prioritized and some people will have to make their own way to hospitals.

Union leaders say some of the lowest paid public health workers, including call handlers and drivers, are on the verge of falling below the national minimum wage.

“When people accuse us of putting the public in danger, I would say that it is this government that has put the public in danger by systematically refusing to speak to us. There are no offers on the table,” UNISON union general secretary Christina McAnea told strikers outside an ambulance station in Sheffield, northern England.

Dozens of other workers, including nurses, train and bus drivers and postal workers, have joined strikes in recent months – Britain’s biggest in decades – to demand better wages as the inflation is at the highest levels the UK has seen since the early 1980s. Inflation reached 11.1% in October, before falling slightly to 10.7% in November.

Wages, especially in the public sector, have not kept pace with the soaring cost of living.

The strike comes at a time of high pressure for the UK’s National Health Service, which has reported record demand for emergency services and urgent care this winter.

Officials blamed the pressures on an upsurge in flu and other winter viruses after two years of COVID-19-related restrictions. But the opposition Labor Party and many health workers say the problems run much deeper. Years of underfunding and staff shortages partly caused by a lack of post-Brexit EU workers in the UK have combined to cause a public health crisis, they say.

Paramedics described the daily wait outside hospitals for patients to be seen, and patients left in hospital hallways for hours waiting to be transferred.

“People are waiting longer because we can’t reach them. It’s a lack of capacity in every department,” said Ian Grimble, a paramedic.

Government officials met with union leaders on Monday, but there was no progress in negotiations. Union leaders have also been angered by government plans to introduce legislation to set “minimum service levels” for firefighters, ambulance services and railways that must be maintained during a strike.

“No one is denying unions the freedom to strike, but it’s also important to balance that with people’s right to access vital health care,” Prime Minister Rishi Sunak told lawmakers on Wednesday.

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