§ Mr. David Hinchliffe (Wakefield)I am pleased and proud to present a petition organised by the ambulance trade unions in Yorkshire in support of their claim, arid their request that it be put to independent arbitration.
The 40,000 signatures attached to the petition are an addition to the 5 million—an all-time record, I understand—attached to the petition presented before Christmas by my hon. Friend the Member for Livingston (Mr. Cook). I know that the people of Yorkshire have been queueing up to show their support for the ambulance crews and to give money, and I only hope that the Government will take some notice of the contents of the petition and the number of signatures attached to it.
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The petition reads:
That the ambulance dispute is in need of urgent resolution. Wherefore your petitioners pray that your Honourable House urge the Secretary of State for Health to use the good offices of ACAS and agree to arbitration in order to end this unnecessary dispute: and urge the Secretary of State to provide a pay formula for the ambulance service similar to that for the other emergency services.
§ To lie upon the Table.
§ Mrs. Alice Mahon (Halifax)I wish to present a petition supporting the ambulance workers, which has been signed by 40,000 members of the public in west Yorkshire, including many of my own constituents as well as people from the neighbouring constituency of Calder Valley.
That the ambulance workers' case is just has been recognised by everyone except, possibly, the Prime Minister and one or two sycophantic Ministers. That they have behaved impeccably in the face of massive provocation is indisputable, and I urge the Government to listen to the people of this country and to end this unnecessary dispute. I do not intend to repeat the words in the petition, but I think that everyone recognises that it is time that justice was done, and time that the suffering that the Government are causing the workers and the public came to an end.
§ To lie upon the Table.