Strikes sweep New Zealand

NEW Zealand’s nurses have agreed to a strike that will cripple the country’s hospitals this week, adding to a tide of industrial action threats faced by the government from the public sector.

The country’s nurses’ union held a last-minute vote to try and avert their first strike in three decades, only for the latest pay offer from health officials to be rejected by members.

Since the change of government to a Labour-led coalition, threats of industrial action by government workers have swept New Zealand.