Around 750 paramedics and other workers at the North East Ambulance Service could strike over the Goverment's offer of a four per cent pay rise - which union GMB describes as "yet another massive real terms pay cut".
The NHS staff have followed their counterparts in Yorkshire by voting strongly in favour of a formal strike ballot - more than 90% of voters in a consultative poll backed the move. This could see walkouts before the end of the year.
Formal dates for a strike ballot will be announced in the coming days.
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Michael Hunt, an organiser at GMB, said: "Ambulance workers should not be worrying about having to choose between eating or heating this winter whilst providing a crucial public service across our communities. North East Ambulance Service is in disarray; it can only keep going thanks to the good will of the overworked and undervalued crews.
“But good will only goes so far. GMB members have a clear message for the Government and the employer: ‘we are worth more, we deserve more, we are willing to make a stand and we want a ballot for strike action.’ GMB Union will stand shoulder to shoulder with our members and fight for the above inflation pay rise that our NHS workers deserve."
Karen O’Brien, director of people and development at NEAS, said: "Although NHS pay is set nationally, and is therefore outside of our control, we recognise this is a very difficult time for everyone right now, including our colleagues.
"We value the contribution of all our colleagues who, regardless of where they work within our organisation, work incredibly hard every day to keep our patients safe. We understand their concerns around feeling overworked, and are confident that this feeling should start to ease following significant additional investment in our service, which is being spent on recruiting more people to join our teams.
“If industrial action is taken, we will work together with our trade union colleagues to keep critical services running.”
This comes as another trade union - UNISON - are set to ballot members across the region's NHS, including at NEAS, about strike action late in October. That union's regional secretary Clare Williams has today said Government ministers "should be ashamed" that NHS staff were having to resort to using food banks.
She said: "It's like the UK has gone back to Victorian times, when workers were so poor, they couldn't feed their families. Some health employees are now so hard up, they can't survive without help from their employers. This is a shocking state of affairs. Ministers should be ashamed that things have come to this.
"The Government should be raising the wages of health workers above the cost of living. This would help keep the wolf from the door and enable the NHS to hold onto experienced staff."
She said the Prime Minister Liz Truss's "reckless gamble threatens the very future of the NHS". She added: "Any squeeze on funding or freeze on wages could see so many staff heading for the door that services are no longer able to function. It's small wonder there’s growing support for strike action by health workers."
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: "We value the hard work of NHS staff and are working hard to support them – including by giving over 1 million NHS workers a pay rise of at least £1,400 this year.
"Industrial action is a matter for unions, and we urge them to carefully consider the potential impacts on patients.”
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