Nurses strike ‘for patients’
An Invercargill nurse protesting working conditions and underfunded district health boards says she took part in nationwide strikes for the patients.
Sandy Smith was one of 30 nurses who stood near Southland Hospital at 7.30am yesterday with placards throughout the day to protest pay.
‘‘Nurses have banded together and they are angry, and they’re saying this is not good enough anymore. Empty promises are not good enough anymore.’’
The DHBs were ‘‘making it look like the nurses were greedy and lazy’’, but the truth was that the nurses were striking because they need adequate resources and adequate staffing to provide better care for the patients, she said.
Yesterday, nurses, midwives and healthcare assistants went on strike for better pay and conditions. A last ditch effort to avoid strike action failed on Wednesday, and industrial action began at 7am yesterday.
New Zealand Nurses’ Organisation (NZNO) members voted to strike after failing to find common ground with District Health Boards over their collective agreement.
The latest pay offer that was rejected included 3 per cent pay increases in June, August and September 2019, as well as a $2000 lump-sum payment and an increase to on-call rates.
The offer also included the creation of two new pay steps, extending the $66,755 salary limit paid to registered nurses and midwives with five years’ experience. From December, $72,944
will be the highest base salary, followed by $77,386 from December next year.
The largest protest appeared to be in Christchurch where about 1000 nurses from across Canterbury marched through Hagley Park to raise awareness for fairer pay and increased staff numbers.
In Auckland 200 nurses picketed outside the Auckland City Hospital, and in Wellington the crowd started at 150 but kept growing.
Southland’s nurses union organiser Celeste Crawford said the nurses were trying to highlight the fact that they didn’t believe the Ministry of Health was taking their concerns about safe staffing levels within the DHBs seriously.
It was incredibly frustrating that negotiations had failed and union members would much rather have been at work looking after patients, she said.
‘‘There has been no input into DHBs for a long time and they were trying to survive on the bare minimum.’’
The short-staffing was because of fiscal restraints during the past 10 years, Crawford said.
Southern District Health Board chief executive Chris Fleming said district hospitals coped well with the impact of the strike.
There had been fewer than usual people in the Emergency Department but it was slightly busier than expected in areas of critical care, Flemming said.
‘‘We are staffed to safe levels and all staff who were expected to report for work did so, including two New Zealand Defence Force nurses who are working in Southland Hospital.’’
About 750 outpatient appointments that had been booked for yesterday across all Southern DHB sites were rescheduled and about 130 elective surgeries were either postponed or not books in anticipation of the strike.
The strike action finished at 7am today.
Before yesterday’s protest, the first and only nationwide nurses’ strike took place on February 14, 1989. The strike took place in response to employers’ calls for performance-based pay and alterations to penal rates.
‘‘Nurses have banded together and they are angry, and they’re saying this is not good enough anymore.’’ Sandy Smith, nurse