Waikato/Waitemata/Taranaki/Northland NZNO Members To Strike Tomorrow

Waikato/Waitemata/Taranaki and Northland NZNO members employed by Te Whatu Ora will tomorrow (Tuesday 17 December) strike for four hours over patient safety concerns following recent collective bargaining with Health NZ.

New Zealand Nurses Organisation Tōpūtanga Tapuhi Kaitiaki o Aotearoa (NZNO) members fear Te Whatu Ora’s plans to pause a key component of its safe staffing programme put patient and whānau safety and wellbeing at risk.

NZNO Waikato delegate and spokesperson Tracy Chisholm is striking because she feels as an integral part of the health system nurses do not receive the level of respect they deserve, and she wants this mindset changed.

"There’s also the lack of respect for the health of New Zealanders by this government and they need to be called out on this.

"For me it’s about safety - the safety of our patients. How do we provide culturally safe care without the nurses to do it; how do we educate, prevent deterioration and further harm without the nurses to provide; how do we meet the governments health kaupapa without the nurses?" Tracy Chisholm says.

Waitemata delegate Troy Stewart says he is striking because as he is fed up with the constant undervaluing of the complex and comprehensive work nurses do, and the disrespect towards them.

"We feel that Te Whatu Ora's suggestion that we are only worth a net pay cut and that we don't know how to represent how understaffed we are is insulting, reprehensible, and irresponsible.

"Why would anyone be willing to roll over and accept a precedent that would undermine the wellbeing of our health system founded on telling the workers that hold the system up that they are worth less than nothing?" Troy Stewart says.

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