Day-long ambulance staff strike tomorrow

AMBULANCE staff nationwide are to stage a day-long strike tomorrow in a row over the choice of union representation.

The National Ambulance Service Representative Association (NASRA), which is part of the Psychiatric Nurses Association (PNA), said that its 500 ambulance personnel members have been left with no choice but to strike.

The strike is the third phase of industrial action that started in October in protest at the HSE’s refusal to negotiate with the PNA.

A PNA member and paramedic, who wished not to be named, said: ‘We are striking for our right to join a union of our choice.

‘Hopefully, the HSE will talk to us before [tomorrow’s planned strike] but it’s not looking good.’

The union claims to represent 500 of the 1,800 ambulance service employees. Meanwhile, the HSE has insisted that the PNA does not have negotiating rights for the grades in question, and talks only to Siptu, which represents the majority of ambulance staff.

Sinéad McGrath, national chairperson of the NASRA, said: ‘I’m calling on Health Minister Simon Harris to demand that the HSE step back from this dispute and move as a matter of urgency to address the issues at its core.’

Separately, members of the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation are set to go on strike on January 30 in the first of six strikes.

Psychiatric nurses are set to begin a series of actions at the end of the month.