MORE than 10,000 ambulance workers have voted to strike across nine NHS trusts, GMB announced today, as health services braced for widespread industrial action before Christmas. 

The health union said its members working as paramedics, emergency care assistants, call handlers and other staff across England and Wales are set to walk out after Tory ministers offered a massive real-terms pay cut via this year’s 4 per cent wage award. 

GMB warned it will meet reps in coming days to discuss potential industrial action before the festive season. 

National secretary Rachel Harrison said: “Ambulance workers — like other NHS workers — are on their knees.

“Demoralised and downtrodden, they’ve faced 12 years of Conservative cuts to the service and their pay packets, fought on the front line of a global pandemic and now face the worst cost-of-living crisis in a generation.

“No-one in the NHS takes strike action lightly — but today shows just how desperate they are.

“This is as much about unsafe staffing levels and patient safety as it is about pay. Something has to change or the service as we know it will collapse.”

The ballot result follows confirmation by fellow health union Unison earlier this week that thousands of 999 call handlers, ambulance technicians, paramedics and others working for ambulance services across England will down tools, probably before Christmas.  

Its members in Northern Ireland had already voted to take industrial action, while in Scotland, unions are recommending workers accept a £2,205 wage increase for the lowest-paid staff in a ballot set to close on December 12.

The Tory anti-worker turnout threshold for strikes across ambulance trusts in Wales was not met, promoting an imminent meeting of Unison’s Welsh health committee to decide its next steps.

Union head Christina McAnea said: “The decision to ​take action and lose a day’s pay is always a tough call, but delays won’t lessen, nor waiting times reduce, until the government acts on wages.”

The walkouts could take place alongside the Royal College of Nursing’s first ever national strike, set to hit non-emergency care at many hospitals and trusts across England, Wales and Northern Ireland on December 15 and 20. 

Tory ministers have described calls for inflation-proof pay rises for public-sector workers as “unaffordable,” despite moves to abolish the cap on bankers’ bonuses and a failure to rule out further boosts to defence spending.