Nurses, ambulance staff and hospital cleaners balloted on strike action

More than 400,000 health workers are to be balloted for strikes, threatening a massive escalation of industrial unrest across the country in growing disputes over issues including pay.

Unison announced that its members ranging from nursing staff and ambulance crews to hospital porters and cleaners, in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, will vote in the coming weeks on whether to mount a campaign of industrial action