Hundreds of NHS workers are to hold two 24-hour strikes in an increasingly bitter row over privatisation.
Workers at NHS Logistics, which delivers supplies to hospitals in England, will walk out at 10pm next Thursday.
The date of a second 24-hour strike will be announced soon.
The workers voted earlier this week to take industrial action after the government confirmed the transfer of their jobs to German-owned delivery giant DHL.
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Workers who will walk out are based at distribution centres in Alfreton, Derbyshire; Runcorn, Cheshire; Normanton, West Yorkshire; Maidstone, Kent, and Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk.
Unison warned that the strike will have an immediate impact on hospital supplies. General secretary Dave Prentis said: “These are not troublemakers, not hard-liners but workers who care deeply about the NHS.”
