Thousands of health workers and firefighters are set to strike again today
Thousands of health workers and firefighters will strike on Friday for the second time in four weeks after mediation with the Government and Fire and Emergency failed again.
More than 17,000 Public Service Association Union (PSA) health workers and about 2000 New Zealand Professional Firefighters Union (NZPFU) members are striking tomorrow.
The industrial action follows the “mega-strike” on October 23, where tens of thousands of public sector workers went on one of the largest strikes in New Zealand’s recent history.
Fire and Emergency has publicly asked the NZPFU to call off its strike, scheduled from midday to 1pm tomorrow, claiming independent facilitation is being considered.
“There is zero point to this strike while the [Employment Relations] Authority considers whether to provide independent facilitation. Going ahead with it needlessly puts community safety at risk,” said Fire and Emergency deputy national commander Megan Stifler.
NZPFU national secretary Wattie Watson said the union has continued to issue strike notices as it thinks facilitation will only result in delays.
“What we need is for Fenz [Fire and Emergency New Zealand] to negotiate rather than continue to hide behind alleged government restrictions as a barrier to settlement,” Watson said.
The NZPFU said it is fighting for safe systems of work, better access to mental health programmes, efficient occupational cancer and illness processes, full reimbursement of occupational disease blood testing, fair and reasonable wages and other “important” claims.
Health workers striking tomorrow include Allied Health staff, mental health and public health nurses and healthcare assistants, and those covered by the policy, advisory, knowledge and specialist (Paks) collective agreement.
PSA national secretary Fleur Fitzsimons said workers were striking for safe staffing, fair pay, and better conditions for patients.
“These workers are standing up for the public health system that New Zealanders need and deserve,” Fitzsimons said.
Since then, the parties have attended mediation through the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment, but no settlement has been reached, the PSA said.
“Unfortunately, Health NZ and this Government still refuse to hear concerns about the state of our health system. We need to see a commitment to fill vacancies quickly and staff hospitals properly.
“Health NZ’s offer would mean workers go backwards. The health system is currently being held together by these workers’ goodwill for their patients. It’s not sustainable, not fair on workers, and doesn’t serve patients well either,” Fitzsimons said.
Life-preserving service staff levels have been agreed between the PSA and Health NZ for the duration of the strike, the union said.
An estimated 100,000 workers from the public sector, including doctors, nurses, teachers, and prison staff, took part in the “mega-strike” in October.
====================================================
Even Australians get it - so why not Kiwis???
“Ten years ago, if a heatwave as intense as last week’s record-breaker had hit the east coast, Australia’s power supply may well have buckled. But this time, the system largely operated as we needed, despite some outages.
On Australia’s main grid last quarter, renewables and energy storage contributed more than 50% of supplied electricity for the first time, while wholesale power prices were more than 40% lower than a year earlier.
[…] shifting demand from gas and coal for power and petrol for cars is likely to deliver significantly lower energy bills for households.
Last quarter, wind generation was up almost 30%, grid solar 15% and grid-scale batteries almost tripled their output. Gas generation fell 27% to its lowest level for a quarter century, while coal fell 4.6% to its lowest quarterly level ever.
Gas has long been the most expensive way to produce power. Gas peaking plants tend to fire up only when supply struggles to meet demand and power prices soar. Less demand for gas has flowed through to lower wholesale prices.”
Full article: www.theguardian.com...
If even Australians see the benefit of solar - then why is NZ actively boycotting solar uptake? The increased line rental for electricity was done to make solar less competitive and prevent cost per kWh to rise even more than it did - and electricity costs are expected to rise even more. Especially as National favours gas - which is the most expensive form of generating electricity. Which in turn will accelerate Climate Change, as if New Zealand didn’t have enough problems with droughts, floods, slips, etc. already.
Time to Tickle Your Thinker 🧠
If a zookeeper had 100 pairs of animals in her zoo, and two pairs of babies are born for each one of the original animals, then (sadly) 23 animals don’t survive, how many animals do you have left in total?
Do you think you know the answer? Simply 'Like' this post and we'll post the answer in the comments below at 2pm on the day!
Want to stop seeing these in your newsfeed? No worries! Simply head here and click once on the Following button.
Poll: As a customer, what do you think about automation?
The Press investigates the growing reliance on your unpaid labour.
Automation (or the “unpaid shift”) is often described as efficient ... but it tends to benefit employers more than consumers.
We want to know: What do you think about automation?
Are you for, or against?
-
9.5% For. Self-service is less frustrating and convenient.
-
43.3% I want to be able to choose.
-
47.2% Against. I want to deal with people.
Loading…
