Nurses, kaiāwhina and firefighters shared their struggles with unsafe staffing, as NZNO members turned out today to support their strike.
‘We can’t do our job without the funding and support and staff.’
In Wellington, nurses Hilary Gardner and Gitta Majumder joined about 30 members of the New Zealand Professional Firefighters Union (NZPFU) striking outside Loafers’ Lodge, where five people lost their lives in a fire in 2023. They included dispatchers, volunteers and community trainers.
“We can’t do our job without the funding and support and staff,” Gardner said. “For firefighters, it’s a lot of the same issues.”
A lack of functioning long-laddered trucks hindered firefighters’ ability to reach the Loafers’ Lodge hostel roof, prompting complaints from the union over its aging equipment.
Failing fire appliances, dangerous stations and unsafe minimum staffing levels — the latter a similar complaint for nurses and kaiāwhina — are key drivers for the strike, says the union, citing regular breakdowns on the way to emergencies.
Majumder said they turned out in solidarity, after firefighters had also been joining nurses and kaiāhina on the picket lines — the health and emergency professionals trading stories of their challenges on the frontline of helping people.
In Papatoetoe, firefighters were welcoming of the NZNO turnout for the duration of their one-hour strike from midday, calling: “The nurses are here”.
“It was great vibes and connections between workers and unions,” NZNO organiser Sharleen Rapato said. “The firefighters really appreciated it.”
NZNO Te Whatu Ora members are set to strike next week on October 23, on what is set to be a historic action with more than 100,000 essential workers taking action around the country.
Other public service workers taking strike action include teachers, doctors, principals, allied health workers, home support workers and school support staff after bargaining break downs in their respective collective agreements.
Firefighter and Tauranga Local Branch secretary for the New Zealand Professional Firefighters Union Mike Swanson says firefighters are striking for safe staffing levels so fire stations, trucks and call centres can remain fully staffed.
“We also need the protection of safe systems of work to ensure that equipment, uniforms and vehicles are appropriate for the risks we face. And when the worst happens, and our job gives us cancer, we want our management to support us in our push for ACC,” he says.
Events around the country are now finalised, here.