Nurses to strike twice this week in major staffing protest

Monday, 1 September 2025

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Nurses are gearing up for two bouts of large-scale industrial action this week - with more than 30,000 unionised workers walking off the job from 7am-11pm on Tuesday and Thursday.

It comes as the Government grapples with frequent significant sector strikes.

The rare twice-in-a-week industrial action is “a demonstration of just how frustrated and annoyed they feel” over safe staffing, NZNO chief executive Paul Goulter said.

“Te Whatu Ora and the Government need to get real and realise it’s patient safety that’s being endangered by their failure to provide sufficient staff.”

Health Minister Simeon Brown said the strikes would cause ”real, avoidable harm to more than 13,000 patients across the country … more than 2200 surgeries will be cancelled, that's hips, knees and cataract operations, which will be cancelled and postponed”.

This week’s actioin week followed a 24-hour strike by nurses at the end of July.

“Ultimately, this is a decision by a union to put politics ahead of patients,” Brown said. The wait list will only grow because of the decision by the union to strike rather than to actually work with Health New Zealand and negotiate.”

Goulter said the decision to strike was not taken lightly and staff would not be paid during strike times.

“Te Whatu Ora said NZNO needs to come back to the table, but there has to be something on the table that's different from what was there last.

Goulter said members were deeply frustrated, to the point of taking unprecedented industrial action.

“And what they're also signalling is if we can't get back around the table and come up with a settlement that is acceptable to both sides, they're now talking about further actions beyond that. That's how seriously they take this failure of the Government to resource adequate staffing in their hospitals.”

Asked if that meant further strike action, Goulter said that would be subject to discussions over the next week or so.

The news of the second nurses’ strike came shortly after the secondary teachers announced they would strike earlier this month. Last Wednesday, thousands of secondary teachers walked out of the classroom, giving the Government about a week’s notice.

At the same time, primary teachers who have been in negotiations since late June, finished their paid union meetings last week ahead of the next round of talks. They rejected the first collective agreement offer earlier this month.

The first line of a media release from the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) earlier this month read: “Educators feel undervalued and disrespected by the Government and their growing discontent at what's happening in the sector will be at the top of the agenda …”

Meanwhile, Public Service Minister Judith Collins has said she was mulling changes to “keep people at the bargaining table” but not considering restrictions on strike action, at the moment.

The Government was looking at options and one might be getting people into mediation faster, she said.