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A bulk of some of society’s most important workers - from doctors, nurses, teachers, prison staff and other healthcare personnel - will walk off the job next Thursday in a mega industrial strike tipped to be the largest in New Zealand in recent history.

An estimated 100,000 workers from the public sector - also including dentists, social workers, physiotherapists and mental health staffers - are set to be involved, as they take a stand for better pay and conditions, as well as raising concerns around safe staffing levels.

Public Service Minister Judith Collins, meanwhile, has released an open letter to anyone who will be impacted by the strikes and said they appeared to be “politically motivated by the unions”.

Who is striking?

About 17,000 health members with the Public Service Association are taking part in the strike on October 23.

They are made up of allied health staff, mental and public health nurses, home support workers and policy, knowledge, advisory and specialist workers who want fair pay, safe staffing and improved conditions to give what they say is quality care patients deserve.

Why are they striking?

PSA national secretary Fleur Fitzsimons said its members were standing up for safe staffing and for the public health service.

“We have been heartened by the overwhelming support from the public for the strikes, and we know that the protests on the day will be an expression of solidarity between workers in health, education ... and the public they serve.

“These workers have not taken strike action lightly, but consider they have a responsibility to stand up for the health service they know New Zealanders need.”

PSA general secretary Fleur Fitzsimons. Photo / Sylvie Whinray

Health NZ’s pay offers have been criticised by senior doctors, with the PSA describing a 2 per cent rise, followed by a 1.5 per cent increase over a 30-month period as being well below inflation.

“The pay offers are effectively pay cuts during a cost-of-living crisis. We risk losing more health workers to Australia,” the PSA said.

There are not enough health workers to provide the level of care Kiwis need and, to make up numbers, staff were often having to pull double shifts.

“They can’t give their best to patients when they’re so thinly stretched and burnt out.”

The NZ Educational Institute has confirmed more than 40,000 of its members will strike for extra classroom support for children with diverse learning needs.

More than 20,000 unionised secondary and area school teachers are also involved in the mega strike due to a lack of progress with collective agreement negotiations, the Post-Primary Teachers’ Association confirmed earlier this month.

A 1% pay rise offer from the Government, in August, had also served as a trigger; dubbed by the PPTA as “appalling” and the lowest increase in a generation.

Underpaid and understaffed, workers ‘infuriated’

Allied health workers strike in Auckland in 2022. Photo / RNZ, Felix Walton

NZ Council of Trade Unions president Richard Wagstaff said the strike action was in response to a centralised government strategy to hold down wages below inflation and to cut resources to the public service.

He said the wide range of professional workers had been negotiating for more than a year, in some cases. The only response they had received, he said, was from employers wanting them to be locked into a long-term agreement with pay adjustments under inflation.

“And they’ve given them no proper response to the resource issues - the short staffing, the breaking down of equipment and so on.

“They know that by cutting wages and by basically having people overworked and underpaid, it really risks the workforce dissipating and leaving for better places, particularly Australia.”

Wagstaff said it was unfair and “quite infuriating” for workers, given that the Government has said it would address the cost-of-living crisis.

“And here they are telling their own workers - their essential workers who keep everything running - that they should expect a pay cut.”

Wagstaff called on ordinary members of the public to get out on Thursday and strike with workers to show their support.

He said they were fighting not just for themselves, but for all Kiwis.

“It’s these public services that enable all of us to live decent lives - health services we can rely on, education services so we can reach our potential, public services to keep us protected and support our interests as a community.

“They are standing up for quality public services.

“They are really exasperated by employers who seem intent on reducing the public sector, reducing the wages of the public sector, reducing the services of the public sector and reducing the resources.”

Public Service Minister’s open letter to affected Kiwis

Minister for the Public Service Judith Collins. Photo / Adam Pearse

Collins has written an open letter to patients, students and families affected by this week’s planned strike.

“The Government regrets the impact on you, your children and your families that is expected on Thursday because of a strike planned by a number of unions.

“We regret even more that the strike appears to be politically motivated by the unions. What else could possibly explain that in early October, when we were trying to negotiate with the secondary teachers’ union, the number one item on their agenda for a meeting with Education Minister Erica Stanford was Palestine,” Collins wrote.

“Palestine. Not terms and conditions. Not student achievement. Not the new curriculum. Palestine. That’s now what students or parents should expect.”

Collins urged parents of senior students to ask their children’s teachers to question their union’s priorities.

“And to all the parents of younger children, who have had to rearrange their usual commitments, I urge you to ask your children’s teachers why their union arranged a strike in a week when many schools already have teacher-only days, followed by Labour Day on Monday.”

Collins went on to say that the Government has acted in good faith and met with unions’ demands for pay increases in line with inflation.

She also spoke directly to those Kiwis who have had medical appointments and procedures postponed due to the strike.

“I know some of you are living in pain and in fear of a possible diagnosis that will now be delayed. This industrial action is unfair and unwarranted.”

Collins said they value nurses, doctors and other health workers whose everyday care supports patients. They also valued teachers, principals and teacher aides, she said.

“We value all public sector employees.”

The Government had a responsibility to manage the country’s finances carefully - and especially when “money is tight”, she said.

“From cancer drugs to social housing, from support for vulnerable people to conversation initiatives, there are thousands of appeals for increased spending as well as for wage increases.

“The country is simply not earning enough to meet all these calls.”

She pointed to a “huge increase” in public spending over Covid and in the following years, which resulted to public debt exploding.

“It is only unions who want strikes. We ask, once again, for them to come to the table. That is the place to talk and to bargain.”