NHS staff treated to ice creams as part of campaign for increased wages
Doctors, nurses and other hospital staff as well as visitors to New Cross Hospital in Wolverhampton were treated to a cooling sweet treat as part of a national campaign to gain support for an increase in wages for NHS staff.
Representatives of UNISON invited people to sign postcards as part of a petition aimed at gaining NHS workers a pay rise in light of their hard work during the pandemic.
They hope a petition to Parliament will result in pay band increases of £2,000 for NHS staff.
As part of the campaign union representatives hired an ice-cream van and dished out the sweet treats to staff as well as to visitors to New Cross.
Mark Ondrak, the 41-year-old branch secretary for the union, said: "We spent a full day dishing out ice-creams and collecting signatures.
"We now intend to pass these onto local MPs and hoping they will take up the campaign in Parliament.
"We had thought of releasing 2,000 balloons to mark the occasion and draw people's attention to the campaign but then thought this might not be environmentally acceptable.
"In the end we decided to hire the ice-cream van and staff were queuing up for the ices.
"We also felt that the ice-cream was a treat for NHS staff and a way of saying thank you to them all.
"I think for many it was a bit of a light release from all that they have had to face.
"This was the final day of a two-week campaign to win support for our call for an increase in wages for staff.
"The Prime Minister's review body is due to release a report on a wage review and this was our final push to get signatures to put before local MPs.
"We are hoping that they will back our campaign and the call for fairer wages for staff."
