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Ambulance workers vote for strike action

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.

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Yorkshire ambulance workers vote in favour of strike 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.”

– Terry Cunliffe, Unite regional officer

Union leader condemns blacklisting "scandal"

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.

Union welcome compensation ruling

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.

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