AMBULANCE Trust chiefs are battling to win over staff after union members gave them a vote of no confidence.

Workers from Hereford and Worcester Ambulance Trust have also voted against co-operating with the Trust management.

The Association of Ambulance Personnel held the votes because it felt bosses were ignoring workers when making decisions on policy.

It also plans to ballot members about strike action if the situation does not improve.

Stuart Gardner, the association's Hereford and Worcester branch secretary who complained at the start of the year that paramedics were becoming stressed because of their high workload, said morale was still low among workers.

"The main reason is that they feel they aren't being talked to by management," he said.

"They think that making policy is a one-way process. They were going to introduce 2am shift finishes without consulting us."

Mr Gardner said staff only seemed to see senior management if they were in trouble.

"There has been a big influx of new staff, and many of them don't know what the senior management staff look like," he said.

But he said he had been encouraged by talks with acting chief executive Tamar Thompson, who had put a hold on the introduction of 2am shift finishes.

"She's been listening to us quite a lot," he said. "If they carry on talking to us, we're hoping that won't be going to ballot."

Tamar Thompson, acting chief executive at Hereford and Worcester Ambulance Service Trust, said she fully intended to involve more staff in its future direction.

"As a recently appointed chief executive, it's early days for me and I'm keen to establish good working relationships with staff," she said.

"Next week, I intend to begin the process of setting up a new joint staff forum, which will bring together staff representatives and management.

We can then explore jointly ways of improving communication."