Nurses, midwives, other healthcare workers and primary teachers are among more than 6500 Bay of Plenty workers planning to join a mega strike.

October 23 is shaping up to be New Zealand’s largest strike in decades, says NZ Council of Trade Unions (CTU) president Richard Wagstaff.

The CTU represents more than 320,000 workers in dozens of affiliated unions in various occupations, including health, education, public services, manufacturing, construction and hospitality.

Wagstaff said that if the strikes went ahead, it would be the “biggest walk-off” in about 40 years.

The CTU did not provide a breakdown of how many Bay of Plenty workers planned to strike.

Nationally, more than 11,500 health workers planned to strike for 24 hours in support of their claims for safe staffing levels, better pay and conditions.

Allied Health staff

PSA national secretary Fleur Fitzsimons. Photo / Sylvie Whinray

PSA national secretary Fleur Fitzsimons said the allied health workers’ strike would affect dozens of critical roles in public health and clinical support and specialised technical jobs – including anaesthetic technicians and Māori health specialists.

Fitzsimons told the Bay of Plenty Times that 879 Bay of Plenty members would be among the total 16,738 members striking.

This included 640 in Tauranga and Whakatāne, and 240 in Rotorua and Taupō (Lakes), who planned to attend strike meetings at Memorial Park in Tauranga and at Rotorua’s Village Green.

Members voted to strike because of seeing patients let down by a “chronically under-funded and under-staffed” healthcare sector.

Health New Zealand’s offer of a 2% pay rise, followed by a 1.5% increase over 30 months, did not “fairly reflect members’ value”.

About 1700 PSA members covered by the Policy, Advisory, Knowledge and Specialist Workers Collective also planned to strike. These included critical IT workers and back-office support staff.

Nurses, doctors and dentists

NZNO president Anne Daniels. Photo / RNZ, Pretoria Gordon

More than 36,000 nurses, midwives, health assistants and kaimahi hauro, who are members of the NZ Nurses Organisation, planned to join the October 23 mass strike.

Union president Anne Daniels said that 37,500 NZNO members opted to strike, including about 2970 in the Bay of Plenty-Lakes area. Of these, 1700 members would be in Tauranga and 800 in Rotorua.

Daniels said the strike was primarily about “safe staffing concerns”.

She said the lack of midwives in the Bay of Plenty was “taking a toll” on those who have to travel for safe maternity care, and maternity care should be “accessible and affordable”.

It was likely strike events would be held at Memorial Park in Tauranga and the Village Green in Rotorua, she said.

A further 4000 senior doctors and dentists, members of the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists, also planned to strike, but Bay of Plenty members were not balloted to take part.

Corrections, firefighters

About 400 NZ Nurses Organisation members and healthcare assistants who work for Corrections plan to strike for 16 hours on October 23.

NZNO Corrections spokesman Michael Pye told RNZ that members were frustrated Corrections refused to address safety concerns about the “overly arduous” on-call system.

“These essential workers also need an improved pay offer that is not a pay cut and reflects the cost-of-living crisis.”

Corrections said it could not comment during collective bargaining.

However, planning was under way “to ensure the continued safe and secure operation of our prisons”.

Primary school teachers

Striking primary and intermediate teachers in 2020 in Tauranga city centre.

NZEI national secretary Stephanie Mills said more than 40,000 members planned to strike for extra classroom support for children with diverse learning needs. This included 2712 Bay of Plenty members.

“Members tell us their communities are supportive of strike action, because they understand it is their children affected in the long term by the Government not addressing the need for more investment in education.”

In Tauranga, members would gather for a meeting at Memorial Park from 11am to 1.30pm.

In Rotorua, sign-carrying members would meet at Rotorua’s Village Green at 12pm.

Public Service Commissioner Sir Brian Roche recently told RNZ that he believed the latest pay offer for teachers was “fair and fiscally responsible”, and reflected “difficult economic times”. It built on significant increases in recent years and was on top of a $2.5 billion investment in education.

Roche was disappointed the decision to strike was at a “really difficult time” for students.

Health NZ, minister respond

Health New Zealand said planned strikes would affect “thousands of patients” and their care would be delayed for days before and after.

HNZ said it was committed to reaching a settlement and avoiding more patient disruption.

“We will have contingency plans in place to ensure the continued delivery of health services ...”

Health Minister Simeon Brown. Photo / NZME

Health Minister Simeon Brown earlier told RNZ the strikes were “deliberate politicking”.

“It’s the unions who are playing politics ... and the unions are disrupting the care of thousands of patients needing care, disrupting the learning of thousands of students in our classrooms.

“The fact that they’re all doing this on the same date ... this is politics ahead of actually public service, which is what they should be about.”

Sandra Conchie is a senior journalist at the Bay of Plenty Times and Rotorua Daily Post who has been a journalist for 25 years. She mainly covers police, court and other justice stories, as well as general news. She has been a Canon Media Awards regional/community reporter of the year.