'It's a sad day': Firefighters go on strike for a second week

Friday, 26 August 2022

New Plymouth’s fire station stood near empty for a second Friday in succession as staff joined a chorus of other firefighters around the country who walked off site as part of industrial action against Fire and Emergency New Zealand.

Senior station officer Nick Burke, who had been in the role for more than 40 years, said it wasn’t something they wanted to do, but FENZ had to begin to listen to them.

“It’s a sad day, not only here but around the country, and it’s a failure of FENZ,” he said.

A group of current and ex- firefighters marched together through the streets of New Plymouth central business district demanding change.

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The main concerns for firefighters around the country was being understaffed, underpaid, overworked and under resourced, its members said.

FENZ Deputy National Commander Brendan Nally previously told Stuff the strike action was disappointing.

Nally said FENZ had made a substantial new pay offer which would see the base salaries of all firefighters increase by between 8% and 19% over the next two years.

Burke said management was playing a game of “Russian roulette” by hoping no one would call with an emergency in the hour.

“It’s not easy being so close knowing any second there could be a call to assist the public because someone is trapped in a car or there’s a house on fire,” he said.

“There will be a volunteer response to that but one thing with fire and lives is seconds count.”

Burke said they will continue to strike until management 'sits down at the mediation table'.