More than 100,000 go on strike in NZ for better pay

More than 100,000 New Zealand teachers, nurses, doctors, firefighters and support staff walked off the job, demanding more money and resources for the public sector in a sign of growing discontent with the government.

Public officials marched through towns across New Zealand with signs and banners, chanted slogans and listened to speeches. Protests in Wellington and Christchurch had to be canceled due to hazardous weather conditions.

The unions issued a joint statement declaring the strike the largest in decades, involving more than 100,000 public servants.

Sylvia Boys, an emergency doctor at Middlemore Hospital and vice president of the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists, told the crowd in Auckland’s Aotea Square that the government was elected on its promise to reduce the cost of living while maintaining frontline services and “it is fair to say these are issues on which they have failed woefully”.

“The cost of living has worsened and we have seen sector cuts in healthcare and education. We are losing more talent than ever before,” he added in a speech posted on Facebook by the ASMS union.

Although the demonstrations highlighted growing public unease with the administration’s conduct, the government dismissed the protests as a political demonstration planned by the unions.

Latest opinion polls show support for New Zealand’s ruling coalition is waning, but the opposition has yet to make a clear difference.

The Conservative government has cut new public spending as it tries to return to surplus since coming to power in 2023. He said the cuts would be in back-office operations and would keep interest rates low and ensure New Zealand continued to be seen as a good place to invest.

But New Zealand’s economy has struggled, contracting in three of the last five quarters, and historically high numbers of Kiwis are leaving the country. Inflation, although off peak, has risen further in the last few quarters.

Public Service Minister Judith Collins said in a statement that the strike was unfair, inefficient and unnecessary.

“This is a demonstration targeting the government, but those paying the price are the thousands of patients whose appointments and surgeries have been canceled and the hundreds of thousands of children who will miss another day of school,” he said.

The government said it was ready to negotiate.