Hato Hone St John ambulance officers in Whangārei get plenty of toots of support during their strike on Tuesday. Photo / Denise Piper
Hato Hone St John ambulance officers in Whangārei get plenty of toots of support during their strike on Tuesday. Photo / Denise Piper
EDITORIAL
This week, for the first time ever, ambulance workers in New Zealand went on strike. First on Tuesday, then again on Saturday.
The vote to withdraw their labour followed nine months of fruitless bargaining for additional funding.
During the periods covered by the strike, 70%of the usual number of ambulances were available.
“Those ambulances will be reserved and responding to life-threatening incidents only,” Hato Hone St John’s deputy chief executive of ambulance operations, Dan Ohs, said ahead of the strike. “About 50% of our incidents would normally be classed as life-threatening. So we will have 70% of our ambulances to respond to about 50% of incidents.”
According to Ohs, Saturdays are one of the busiest days of the week for ambulance workers, with more people travelling, drinking alcohol, playing sport or doing DIY around the house.
Choosing to strike on the day it affects the services the most is a big deal and shows how serious and desperate for change the workers are.
New Zealand Ambulance Association secretary Mark Quin said members did not feel listened to.
“They’re disappointed and gutted, and even almost broken about the fact they’ve had to go this far to get recognition and publicity.
“Yes it is a big deal, and we haven’t made this decision lightly. But our members have told us, told the union, that ‘we feel like we have no other way to get our point across because St John has not been actively listening, in terms of active progression of the pay dispute’,” Quin said ahead of the strike on Saturday.
While the safety of New Zealanders with life-threatening injuries was ensured by maintaining core services that prevent a serious threat to life or permanent disability during strike action, this is the loudest cry for help the sector has sent, with many describing it as a last resort.
First Union’s national ambulance co-ordinator Faye McCann said officers had not initially wanted to withdraw their labour, but the lack of progress in negotiations had left them between a rock and a hard place.
After months of negotiations, two unions claim paramedics on the front line of health emergencies are not paid fairly.
McCann told the Herald St John had not offered any percentage increase on pay rates for staff.
“Some ambulance officers are not even paid the living wage,” McCann said.
The strike follows months of negotiations.
The strike goes beyond requests for pay raises, as unions have expressed concerns about the funding structure and the charity status of New Zealand’s largest ambulance service.
Better funding for ambulance services was pledged by National and NZ First in their coalition agreement, but the First Union claims St John’s funding had been frozen in Budget 2024/25.
“So far, the Government has refused to step up and St John is advising they are unable to provide any percentage increase to ambulance officers’ pay as they say they do not have any money,” McCann told the Herald.
“First Union has consistently voiced concerns of our members that an ambulance service should not be a charity or reliant on donations, it should be publicly owned and fully funded based on patient need.”
In May, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said Hato Hone St John “actually don’t want to be 100% funded” by the Government.
In McCann’s view, ambulance services are essential and it “doesn’t make sense” for them to be kept separate from the rest of the system and reliant on charity.
“Members can see the effect these poor terms and conditions are having on the future of the ambulance service and are worried if they don’t act now and get results, the ambulance service will crumble,” she said.
Amalgamated Workers Union NZ (Awunz) lead organiser Nicola Young said she understood community concern regarding health workers striking, but underlined that they believed they were fighting for a better system for workers and patients alike.
“Our intention is to put pressure on the employer and the Government to secure a pay increase for our members, not to put the community or patients at risk.
“We believe the health system is in crisis and we need to highlight this, [we are] literally the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff.”
That some ambulance officers are not even paid a living wage is a fact that should embarrass us all. That the service that so often saves our life relies on charitable donations to do so and runs the risk of crumbling should be enough to worry us all.
New Zealand needs a viable, properly funded ambulance service. Ambulance workers are fighting for it like our lives depend on it - because, for many, it does.
