Five hundred ambulance workers have joined picket lines across Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire for a 12 hour walk out.
Members of the Unite Union are taking action because they say the Yorkshire Ambulance Service NHS Trust are risking patient safety, by allowing new emergency care assistants to work with paramedics after only six weeks training.
Over the next five years the trust has to cut their budget by forty six million pounds. They say they'd like to reassure the public that the level of disruption will be minimal during industrial action.
Our members are increasingly concerned about patient safety because of the downgrading of the current skill level on NHS frontline vehicles in Yorkshire. We call yet again on the blinkered, hardline management at the Yorkshire Ambulance Service NHS Trust to enter into meaningful talks with Unite. The continuing refusal of the management to discuss patient safety - which led to the de-recognition of the union - has left our members with no option but to take further industrial action."
Yorkshire Ambulance workers are staging a fresh strike in a row over spending cuts. Members of Unite will walk out for 12 hours from midday with a further stoppage planned for June 22 if the dispute remains deadlocked.
The row centres on plans by Yorkshire Ambulance Service NHS Trust to make savings of £46 million over the next five years.
Unite, which has 500 members at the trust, said ambulance workloads were increasing by up to 6% every month.
Ambulance workers are to stage a 24-hour strike in a long-running row over issues including cuts.
Unite said its 450 members in the Yorkshire service, including paramedics and other staff, will walk out on 2 April and ban overtime from 26 March.
The union warned that further strikes could be held.
Unite said the Yorkshire Ambulance Service NHS Trust had derecognised the union after it raised concerns about patient safety over plans to make £46 million of savings over the next five years.
Union members voted by 61% in favour of strikes and 83% for other forms of industrial action.
Yorkshire ambulance workers have voted to hold a one day strike on Tuesday 2nd April. Members of the Unite union will work out because of a dispute over cost cutting measures which could see assistants with only six weeks training brought in to work with paramedics.
Union members also voted in favour of implementing a continuous overtime ban from 26th March.
Unite calls for the management to open constructive negotiations in the run-up to 2 April. This is a final window of opportunity for the trust to resolve this situation for the benefit of the Yorkshire public. The management has been trying to silence Unite after it raised legitimate concerns over patient safety that could flow from the shake-up of ambulance services in the next five years.
Now our members have voted for strike action on 2 April and for a continuous overtime ban from 26 March. It shows the depth of concern that our members feel about patient safety because of the £46 million of savings that managers want to implement. The hardline management has responded by derecognising Unite and twice rejecting our attempts to take this dispute to Acas and to discuss the implications of industrial action.”
A union leader has described the blacklisting of construction workers as a "national scandal" as a study showed 69 workers in Tyne and Wear have been affected by the issue.
Len McCluskey welcomed a Commons debate on blacklisting and said there should be a Leveson-style inquiry into the "scandal".
Legal action is being taken on behalf of a number of construction workers, who are seeking compensation for having their names on the blacklist.
Labour will call for an investigation into allegations that firms involved in major construction projects, including the Olympics, blacklisted workers.
The party said secret files on thousands of workers in the sector resulted in them being denied employment after raising health and safety concerns or exercising their human right to belong to a union.
Unions have said that more than 40 of the UK's largest construction firms used a blacklist.
A ruling by the Supreme Court has cleared the way for compensation payments by insurance firms to the families of people who died after exposure to asbestos.
The UNITE union has welcomed the ruling saying it will affect many of the two thousand five hundred people who are diagnosed with mesothelioma every year.
Nissan's announcement for a new model called the 'Invitation' to be built in Sunderland is a boost for skilled jobs and a lifeline for the local economy says, Unite, Britain's biggest union.
