KEIGHLEY ambulance station staff joined in a national four-hour industrial action this week.

They went on strike for four hours and manned a picket line outside their Hard Ings Road base in protest against a Government decision to not award them a one per cent pay rise.

A group of about 17 to 20 Unison union members took part in the action between 7am and 11am on Monday. (Nov 24)

Unison representative Lee Bower stressed that staff had continued to respond to serious "life and limb" emergency call-outs during this period.

"It's a hard pill for us to swallow when we're not being given one per cent and the Government gave themselves an 11 per cent pay rise," he said.

"Our last pay rise must have been between four and six years ago.

"If we were asking for five to six per cent maybe you could understand the Government decision, but one per cent isn't much."

Commenting on the strike outside the Keighley ambulance base, he added: "We got an absolutely phenomenal response from passing cars during the four hours.

"A lot of people were tooting their hours and some members of the public stopped to have a chat with us. It was fantastic."