Source: New Zealand Nurses Organisation
Counties Manukau/Wairarapa/Whanganui NZNO members employed by Te Whatu Ora will tomorrow (Thursday 12 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 Counties Manukau delegate and spokesperson Liandra Conradie says she’s on strike to get a better work environment, to provide safer care that patients deserve and to stand up for our new graduates who don’t have jobs.
“That’s quite disappointing that we’ve trained so many nurses, and they can’t find jobs, and we need them in our workspace.
“We need New Zealand trained nurses and we need to retain them but we’re just not even employing them,” Liandra Conradie says.
Wairarapa delegate Sue Presow is striking for the health and safety, and for the futures of both health workers and patients.
“It’s going to be very hard on nurses in the future. I think there are definite problems coming up.
“I would like all our new grads to get jobs. If they can do their training, I think they should get jobs.
“We’re very undervalued and want to be recognised for the work we do,” Sue Presow says.
