Ambulance workers set for further strike action
Ambulance workers in Galway will strike for 24 hours from today (Friday) in their seventh day of industrial action this year in an ongoing dispute with the HSE.
Members of the National Ambulance Services Representative Association (NASRA) are protesting that the HSE is refusing to recognise their union and are failing to negotiate with them over major changes to their working conditions.
NASRA is a branch of the Psychiatric Nurses Association (PNA) and represents over 500 staff in the HSE’s National Ambulance Service including paramedics, advanced paramedics and emergency medical technicians (EMTs).
However, the HSE does not recognise NASRA branch as a representative body for ambulance personnel.
Reg Turner, Chair of the Western Branch of NASRA, told the Galway City Tribune that their members would continue their campaign and would refuse to join Siptu, which was what the HSE were pushing for. The West branch has 40 members.
“They know they’re goosed as soon as they talk to us – so many things have changed in the ambulance service even since I became an EMT five years ago,” he explained.
“We are allowed to give up to 13 medications – before it was eight. We used to have a control centre in Castlebar – now we get instructions from Ballyshannon and Dublin and these are changes brought in without any consultation or negotiation.
“They’re proposing changes to regional boundaries without any discussion with staff – there are a whole lot of issues that have to be worked out and they are refusing to even recognise us.”
For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.
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