Employment Disputes – Second St John withdrawal of labour takes effect tomorrow with further strikes likely

FIRST Union and New Zealand Ambulance Association (NZAA) members at St John are continuing with a second strike action and withdrawal of labour tomorrow, with pickets planned around the country and union officials warning that further strike actions will be voted on by union members over the next week as Government Ministers Reti and Costello continue to hide and ignore ambulance officers’ concerns.

[Withdrawal of labour] – active from 04:00 am, Saturday 24th August until 04:00am, Sunday 25th August

• Auckland – 09:00 – corner of Broadway and Khyber Pass Rd
• Christchurch – 14:00 – meeting outside JSEP, 20 Lichfield Street side, then walking over to Hagley Park and Hospital
• Hamilton – 10:00 – Ōhaupō road and Lorne street (Hospital corner)
• Dunedin – 09:00 – Queens Gardens, Central Dunedin
• Invercargill – 08:00 – corner of Tay St and Elles Rd
• Palmerston North – 12:00 – corner of Rangitikei St and Featherston St
• Whanganui – 08:00-10:00 – corner of Victoria Ave and Taupo Quay
• Whangarei – 10:00-13:00 – outside Whangarei Ambulance station, 43 Western Hills Drive, Kensington

FIRST Union and NZAA have this week begun the first withdrawal of labour by the joint unions’ members in history following nine months of bargaining with Hato Hone St John without success. The unions are calling for full Government funding for the ambulance service and withdrew labour for 24 hours on Tuesday this week. A Life Preserving Services agreement is in place between the unions and St John.

“It’s clear that there’s huge public support for a fully funded ambulance service that’s fully resourced to deal with patient needs and doesn’t devolve into months of zero-sum, imaginary bargaining every year when St John are due to provide pay increases,” said Paul Watson, FIRST Union Southern Regional Secretary.

“Despite the success of this week’s strike actions, the Government has not provided any indication of further funding for St John and we fear that we’ll be heading back to the bargaining table next week with no new information and no direction from those responsible for ensuring the smooth running of our ambulance services.”

Mr Watson said both FIRST Union and NZAA members are likely to vote this week on a series of further strike actions. He said that an indicative survey of FIRST Union members from the last day showed that over 90% of members would tentatively support further withdrawals of labour, and all options were on the table.

Mark Quin, Secretary of the New Zealand Ambulance Association, said there has been significant support from both union members and the general public at various pickets around the country in metropolitan, provincial and rural areas.

“It emphasises the importance of having a viable ambulance service in NZ that is well-funded and with ambulance officers, paramedics and communication staff paid accordingly in recognition of the role they do in the community and more so as sometimes the only health resource the general public can access in real time,” said Mr Quin.

“NZAA will be reviewing the situation next week with FIRST Union but already NZAA members are indicating support for further withdrawals of labour and upwards of 12 hours per shift as opposed to the 4 hours tomorrow.”