GMB and Unite members strike outside Burnley Ambulance station

Almost 2,000 GMB Union ambulance workers across the North West walked out today, including a group from Burnley Ambulance Station, next to Burnley General Teaching Hospital.

Members of the Unite union were also present on the picket line.

Flags and signs from the picket line (Image: Newsquest)

Paramedics, emergency care assistants, call handlers and other staff have staged pickets across the region, strike action by nurses has seen the two sets of colleagues line up next to each other in some areas.

Workers across the ambulance service voted to strike over the government’s imposed four per cent pay rise.

Picket lines are in operation from 7.00am to 7.00pm.

One picketer said there is a “pay catastrophe” going on and also cited the abuse that workers receive for trying to do their jobs as one of the reasons for striking.

Tony Dunn, GMB convenor for North West Ambulance Service, said: “First and foremost it’s conditions and pay obviously.

"There is a pay catastrophe going on at the moment with rising prices and everything and the government just aren’t listening to what we are saying about the job, about the conditions we are working in, the fact that we’re going to calls that are hours and hours old, and we’re facing abuse for our service in essence.

Tony Dunn, a GMB convenor for North West Ambulance Service (Image: Newsquest)

“We need to sort it out. We need to go back to old-fashioned ambulance work.”

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced last week he would bring in 800 new ambulances as part of an emergency care plan that also included a vow to rapidly slash long waiting times and introduce thousands more beds.

However, with nobody to drive the ambulances, Tony said it will be just another ambulance stuck in a queue outside a hospital.

More flags on the picket line (Image: Newsquest)

He said: “We need more investment in social care, we need more investment in staffing the ambulance service.

"We’re well understaffed. I know Rishi Sunak said last week he was investing in 700 ambulances – we’ve nobody to work on them.

"We need the staff to work on them. It’s clear it’s not working, it’s not happening. It’s just false promises.

“It’s just another ambulance that’ll be in a queue in a hospital. We’re stood in the grounds of Burnley General Hospital – well it was a general hospital, all the services have been taken away from here and down to Blackburn, Preston, and onwards.

"Now if you have a heart attack in Burnley you go to Blackpool. We need that local service back.”

Nicola Hartley, co branch chair for Unite (Image: Newsquest)

Nicola Hartley, co branch chair for Unite, added: “We’re fighting for the pay, the conditions, the stress that people are under.

"It’s the job, the recruitment and retention, we can’t retain the staff.

“The staff we do have are under quite a lot of stress because when they do get to the hospitals our handover times are lengthy, and in real terms there’s been a pay cut.

“We’re trying to make it better for everybody – not just the people on this picket line but the rest of the NHS.”

The picket line received plenty of support, with motorists beeping their horns as they drove past and walkers nodding their heads and giving words of appreciation as they passed the picket line.

Tony added: “It’s been amazing from the public. These are the people that our actions are affecting.

"I want to apologise to the public that it’s got to this and we are having to do this. But it’s not an overnight decision this, it’s a long-term problem that has lead us to come to this. It’s quite clear now that my members are fed up.”

Further GMB strikes will take place later this month, on Thursday, February 16, and Monday, February 20, and there will be another Unite strike on Wednesday, February 22.