Red-level weather warnings may cancel rallies but won’t stop the most disruptive day of industrial action in decades, writes Catherine McGregor in today’s extract from The Bulletin.
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Wild weather forces last-minute changes
As severe weather sweeps the country, unions are preparing to launch one of New Zealand’s largest coordinated strikes in decades. Thursday’s “mega strike” is expected to see more than 100,000 teachers, nurses, doctors and public sector workers walk off the job – though red-level wind warnings across the lower North and South Islands are forcing changes to plans, RNZ’s Lucy Xia reports. Outdoor rallies in Wellington, Wairarapa, Christchurch and some Canterbury and Otago towns have been cancelled, while others in the South Island have been moved indoors. MetService has warned of gusts strong enough to cause widespread damage and disruption, with threats to life from flying debris. Marches are still planned in Auckland, Hamilton and many North Island towns, and unions say turnout is likely to remain high. The Spinoff will be running a live blog from 9am with updates and photos from around the country.
Who’s striking, and what’s at stake
The action brings together members of the Public Service Association, the New Zealand Nurses Organisation, NZEI Te Riu Roa, the Post Primary Teachers’ Association, the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists and – a late addition – 1,200 ACC staff. As Emma Gleason explains in her excellent guide for The Spinoff, while each union’s demands are unique, overall the teachers, nurses, healthcare assistants and doctors are demanding more generous pay increases, safer staffing levels and better working conditions.
From 11am, 36,000 nurses and 4,000 senior doctors and dentists are expected to withdraw labour in hospitals nationwide. Around 40,000 teachers will walk off the job, closing most schools and affecting families across the country. In total, more than 100,000 workers are expected to take part, with thousands more encouraged by their own unions to show solidarity on social media and in person. Hospitals will continue to provide emergency care, but thousands of non-urgent appointments and procedures have been postponed.
Government takes hard line as polls show public support
The government is entering Thursday’s strike with an increasingly combative stance. Public service minister Judith Collins has written an open letter to “the people of New Zealand” calling the industrial action “politically motivated” and arguing that “the country is simply not earning enough” to meet all the unions’ demands. Meanwhile education Minister Erica Stanford said parents should be “furious” that industrial action is falling on exam days and health minister Simeon Brown said striking doctors are “crossing an ethical line”.
At the same time, the ostensibly neutral Public Service Commission has come under fire for a series of strike-related press releases and an unprecedented Facebook ad warning of disruptions to schools and hospitals, even though “genuine offers have been made and the opportunity to bargain remains open”. Yet new Talbot Mills polling published this week in Newsroom suggests the government may be misjudging the public mood: 65% of respondents support the strike, with nearly half of coalition voters saying they side more with the unions than with the government.
The ‘ethical line’
The health minister claims that, by striking, doctors have violated their duty of care, but is that really true? In The Conversation, University of Otago bioethicist Elizabeth Fenton argues that the strike is ethically defensible and even necessary to safeguard long-term patient wellbeing. She writes that while doctors’ obligations to “do no harm” are important, they are not absolute and must be balanced against broader responsibilities to maintain a safe and sustainable health system. “Doctors can argue they are striking out of concern that unless their claims are addressed even greater harms will result,” she notes. As thousands of education and healthcare professionals prepare to join the picket lines, that argument – that striking today may prevent deeper harm tomorrow – is about to be tested in the court of public opinion.
