Ambulance strike adds to wave of strikes in Britain

Around 25,000 workers in Britain’s ambulance and other emergency services went on strike on Wednesday, for the second time since December, amid a series of multi-union disputes with the government over low pay.

The labor action by paramedics, drivers and emergency call operators was the latest in a wave of strikes in recent months that paralyzed the country’s rail network for several days and weighed on Britain’s already overstretched public health system.

Thousands of other workers, including nurses, train and bus drivers and postal workers, have joined strikes in recent months — the biggest in decades in Britain — to demand better wages as the rate of inflation soared. It is shooting up to the highest levels the UK has seen since the early 1980s. The inflation rate rose to 11.1% in October, before dipping slightly to 10.7% in November.

Wages, especially in the public sector, have not kept up with the breakneck pace of the rising cost of living.

Health authorities warned that the impact of Wednesday’s strike could be worse than December’s, because more staff stopped working, including those who handle emergency calls. People have been advised to only call in cases of life-threatening emergencies — such as cardiac arrest or a serious car accident — and ambulances will respond to such situations.

They added that less urgent cases will not be given priority, so some people will have to get to hospitals on their own.

Union leaders say some of the lowest-paid public health workers, including call handlers and drivers, are close to falling below the national minimum wage.

“When people accuse us of putting the public at risk, I would say that it is this government that has put the people at risk by consistently refusing to talk to us. There is no offer on the tablesaid Christina McAnea, general secretary of the UNISON union, speaking to striking workers outside an ambulance station in Sheffield, northern England.