Striking workers gathered at Tauranga’s Memorial Park to join the nationwide multi-union mega-strike.
Most Bay of Plenty schools are closed as teachers and healthcare workers demand better pay and conditions.
Public Service Minister Judith Collins called the strike “unfair, unproductive and unnecessary”.
Masses of public sector workers gathered in Tauranga’s Memorial Park today for the nationwide multi-union mega-strike.
Strikers lined 11th Ave waving signs and enjoying toots from passing cars, forming a human wall along the side of the park.
Most Bay of Plenty schools were closed today as primary and secondaryteachers and support staff, along with nurses, midwives, Allied Health staff and other healthcare workers, walk off the job.
They are fighting for better pay and conditions, including safe staffing levels, amid negotiations with their Government employers.
Tauranga Hospital remained open, but Health New Zealand Te Whatu Ora said non-emergency cases may face delays and some planned procedures and appointments were postponed.
Striking public service workers gathered in Memorial Park and lined 11th Ave during the nationwide multi-union mega-strike on Thursday. Photo / Brydie Thompson
Tens of thousands of people took part in the mega-strike nationwide, with E tū union director and former Labour minister Michael Wood saying he understood it was the biggest industrial action in New Zealand in 45 years.
Public Service Minister Judith Collins called for the strike to be cancelled on Wednesday, calling it “unfair, unproductive and unnecessary”, saying the Government was at the table and ready to negotiate.
Music teachers Tia Beaufort and Paul Hoskin make some noise for the strikers in Tauranga. Photo / Brydie Thompson
Strikers listened to speakers from the different unions on strike.
In Tauranga they included the Public Service Association Te Pūkenga Here Tikanga Mahi; New Zealand Nurses Organisation Tōpūtanga Tapuhi Kaikiaki o Aotearoa; New Zealand Education Institute Te Riu Roa (NZEI) and Post Primary Teachers Association Te Wehengarua (PPTA).
Supporters in the crowd included children, members of other unions and strikers’ colleagues.
Tauranga strike organiser Andrea Andresen of the NZEI union. Photo / Brydie Thompson
Tauranga strike organiser Andrea Andresen of NZEI told SunLive at Memorial Park that all of the unions contributed to arranging the strike and even unions not on strike today, such as firefighters, were there in support.
“People feel strongly about it.”
Andresen said the organisers aimed to make the day family-friendly so people could bring their children, with most schools closed.
Bethlehem Primary School student Cassie Seaward, holding a whiteboard with a short but pointed poem for Education Minister Erica Stanford and Collins, said this strike was not her first rodeo.
Cassie Seaward, 11, displays a poetic message for the Government at the strike. Photo / Brydie Thompson
“My Mum works at my school and I come along with her,” the 11-year-old said.
“We’re standing up for teachers to get their pay rise.”
People came from far and wide in Tauranga and the surrounding Western Bay of Plenty, including Kaimai, Ōmokoroa, Te Puke and Te Puna.
Te Puna School principal Neil Towersey said the strike was a pushback against the Government, which had failed to carry the sector with them in decision-making.
Principals Neil Towersey, of Te Puna school, and Sandra Portegys, of Ōmokoroa Point School, at the strike. Photo / Brydie Thompson
“Many of the initiatives that have been rolled out without consulting with the sector have proven to be flops and they’re scratching their heads wondering why.”
“I’d rather be at kura”, “The Last Straw” and “This Sucks!” were among signs held by strikers from Te Puke.
Te Puke teachers gather in central Te Puke ahead of today's mega-strike.
Heidi Tidmarsh said she was striking as a mother, a user of the healthcare system and a former school student.
“This affects everybody everywhere right across the country.”
Registered nurse and New Zealand Nurses Organisation delegate Helena Joyce told the crowd that unions standing together showed something was “deeply wrong”.
Registered nurse and delegate for the Orthopaedic Surgical Ward at Tauranga Hospital Helena Joyce addressed the crowd at Memorial Park. Photo / Brydie Thomson
“We are not the problem, we are the warning sign.”
Joyce said the strikers wanted a health system that valued people over politics, keeping staff safe and supported – and in New Zealand.
“Because safe staffing saves lives and fair pay keeps the people here that save lives.”
Registered nurses Sonia Anderson and Jini Brobin display their sign at the mega-strike in Memorial Park, Tauranga. Photo / Brydie Thompson
Learning support worker Shane Swales said the strike was about coming together to “voice huge concerns for children”.
“Our job is to keep kids in school with whatever needs they have ... we don’t have enough support.”
Tauranga Boys’ teacher and PPTA union representative Michelle Stanley said the strike was about what was fair.
“We want to make teaching a first-choice career. We want to attract local specialist trained teachers.”
Some of those who marched included (from left) Oscar Stanley, 6, with Tauranga Boys' College teacher Michelle Stanley and Willow Stanley, 8. Photo / Brydie Thompson
She said Baby Boomers retiring put a strain on the teaching workforce. She believed there were too few replacements to avoid a “massive shortage, with school rolls growing”.
“We need to highlight these issues before they become a really big problem.”
Stanley’s daughter, Willow Stanley, from Kaimai School, said she was there to get “lots of toots” for her teachers.
The strike is anticipated to be New Zealand’s biggest labour action in about 40 years, with up to 100,000 people involved nationally.
Prior to the strike, employers including Health NZ and the Ministry of Education highlighted the disruption the strike would have on school families, patients and services.
In a joint statement from Public Service Minister Judith Collins, Health Minister Simeon Brown, and Education Minister Erica Stanford on Wednesday, Collins said the strike was “unfair, unproductive and unnecessary”.
Collins said “thousands” of patients who had appointments and surgeries cancelled, and " hundreds of thousands" of students missing a day of school were “paying the price” for the unions’ “stunt”.
“For many students, the strike falls in the same week as a teacher-only day and ahead of Labour Weekend, and it comes just weeks out from crucial exams for NCEA-level students.
Public Service Minister Judith Collins. Photo / VNP
“It is only by genuine negotiation that settlements are achieved. The Government is at the table with offers but the unions are out on the streets with megaphones.”
Stanford said the Government was “stretching its financial mandate” to make an offer that meant 66% of trained primary teachers would be paid a base salary of at least $100,000 within 12 months of ratification – up from 40% currently.
Under its latest offer to the PPTA, 76% of all trained secondary teachers would be paid a base salary of at least $100,000 from October 29 – up from 60% currently.
“The PPTA has chosen to reject this offer,” Stanford said.
The statement said the average salary for senior and registered nurses was $125,662, including overtime, a professional development allowance, and penal rates.
Under the latest offer, nurses on the top step would have had a 2% increase in June this year – an extra $2135 per year – with another 1% increase in June next year, it said.
Collins said: “We have listened to the unions and made fair offers at the limits of the Government’s ability to make affordable settlements.”
