In the face of a strike by ambulance drivers in Britain, Health Secretary Steve Barclay made serious accusations against trade unions. Unions have made a conscious choice to harm patients, Barclay wrote in an op-ed for the Telegraph newspaper (Wednesday edition).
NHS health service emergency plans stipulate that not all emergency calls would be covered, continued Barclay. Trade unions criticized the conservative politician’s statements as “misleading” and “at worst deliberate scaremongering”.
Soldiers take over transporting ambulances
A total of around 25,000 emergency services drivers across England and Wales walked out today. They demand higher wages and better working conditions.
Several hundred soldiers intervene, but only to transport patients and not for emergencies. Another strike is scheduled for December 28. Already on the 15th and 20th of December, tens of thousands of NHS nurses and hospital staff went on strike.
Salary negotiations failed
A last attempt at negotiation with the ambulance drivers failed yesterday. Barclay refuses to discuss wages higher than the 4 percent increase offered. UNISON Secretary General Christina McAnea said the government was behaving “completely irresponsible”.
Possible deaths from the strike are the sole responsibility of 10 Downing Street. The unions are critical of a significant drop in real wages in the coming years and are now demanding an increase well above the current inflation rate of around eleven per cent.