Nurses to strike on August 9-10

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

Gisborne Hospital nurses along with their national colleagues employed by Te Whatu Ora (or the former health boards) will strike for 24 hours on August 9 and 10.

Members of the New Zealand Nurses Organisation Tōpūtanga Tapuhi Kaitiaki o Aotearoa (NZNO) have voted overwhelmingly in support of the strike.

NZNO chief executive Paul Goulter says the strike ballot had very high member participation and the result was absolutely decisive.

“Members demanded this ballot because they are extremely frustrated at the lack of progress and slow responses from Te Whatu Ora in negotiations, which have been going on since the current agreement expired back in October.

“Despite the extremely difficult and unsafe working environment they face every day in our public hospitals and worksites, which has been well-covered in the media, they do not feel they are being heard or taken seriously.

“To date, claims in negotiations around safer staffing practices, nurse-to-patient ratios and health and safety have pretty much fallen on deaf ears, and these members have simply had enough.”

Mr Goulter said nurses, midwives, healthcare assistants and kaimahi hauora were always extremely reluctant to strike because of the impact it had on patients.

“But there comes a point when they decide they have to strike for the very wellbeing of those patients, whose health and everyday care is jeopardised by unsafe staffing levels that Te Whatu Ora refuses to address.”

He said that, as with any strike action in the public arena, NZNO members would work with Te Whatu Ora and do their best to provide life preserving services at all hospitals and worksites for the duration of the strike.

The strike ballot was organised before the latest offer was received from Te Whatu Ora.

He said the union would proceed with the strike unless members voted to ratify the recently received offer.

A ratification vote on the offer would open on August 1 and close on August 7.

A strike notice was due to be issued to Te Whatu Ora yesterday.

The strike will start at 7am on August 9 and end at 7am on August 10 at every site where Te Whatu Ora provides healthcare services or hospital care services.

Meanwhile, NZNO Te Whatu Ora members are also set to vote on a pay equity offer from the Government and Te Whatu Ora, which is meant to address long-standing gender discrimination.

“Pay equity is an entirely separate process from collective agreement negotiations because it addresses a historic undervaluation of a female-dominated profession that simply has to be corrected.”