Explainer – There’s a huge strike coming. Who’s taking part, why are they protesting and what’s so ‘mega’ about it?Nik Dirga, Digital Explainer Editor
Explainer – There’s a “mega strike” coming this week. Who is taking part, and why are they protesting?
It is being billed as quite possibly the biggest labour action in more than 40 years.
Teachers, nurses and thousands of other workers are all expected to strike on Thursday 23 October as dissatisfaction over pay and working conditions boils over.
It is the latest in a growing series of strikes and walkoffs this year, but the sheer size of it means much of New Zealand will come to a halt.
“The mood for working people is frustration with a government that is out of touch and doesn’t seem to value them or their work – especially in the public sector,” Council of Trade Unions president Richard Wagstaff said.
However, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon is calling the planned action “a shame”, and said, “I think people are getting sick of unions prioritising the politics over patients, or kids in education and parents being mucked around.”
Here’s what you need to know.
An awful lot of people – estimates have been that more than 100,000 people could walk off the job Thursday.
“The strike on 23 October by so many essential public service workforces shows the level of frustration workers are feeling,” said New Zealand Nurses Association (NZNO) bargaining team member Debbie Handisides.
They will represent several unions including the Public Service Association (PSA), NZNO, New Zealand Education Institute Te Riu Roa (NZEI) NZEI, Post Primary Teachers Association (PPTA Te Wehengarua) and Association of Salaried Medical Specialists (ASMS).
There will likely be some events Thursday outside schools and hospitals, but there are also many larger organised events.
Marches and rallies are scheduled throughout the country, including a march in Wellington to Parliament with a rally at 1pm and a march down Queen Street in Auckland meeting in Aotea Square starting at 12pm.
A full list of picket and rally event locations and times has been posted on union websites.
Many schools will be closed, and at hospitals, many non-emergency medical procedures will be delayed.
Police said planning was well under way to ensure safety on Thursday.
“Members of the public may experience some delays when the protest is underway,” a police spokesperson said.
“In Auckland march activity is expected around Queen Street and Te Komititanga Square from noon with disruption to traffic flow and traffic management in place. In Wellington march activity is expected from Queens Wharf to Parliament around noon with traffic management at key intersections.”
There is no way of knowing until the day itself, but it is shaping up to be.
Victoria University professor of history Jim McAloon, who has extensively studied Aotearoa’s labour history, said it is “quite likely, in terms of numbers of workers”.
“Indeed if you count it that way, it might be the biggest since the 1979 General Strike, a one-day protest against (former Prime Minister) Muldoon intervening in wage negotiations.”
That strike drew about 300,000 workers, he said.
Nurses have been negotiating their pay as well as concerns about staffing levels and safety for some time now and have been embroiled in negotiations since last year.
A Public Service Commission spokesperson said that under the most recent offer, “nurses on the top step would have had a 2 percent increase in June 2025 – an extra $2135 per year – with another 1 percent increase in June next year”.
Under that June offer, a graduate nurse on $75,773 would have received a total 11 percent increase to take their salary to $84,150 by June 2026, the commission said.
NZNO said that offers are below inflation rates, and said there is currently no new current offer or counter-offer on tap.
“Health NZ needs to listen to the voice of workers and come back to the bargaining table with an offer that provides for safer staffing levels, ends delays in recruiting new staff, and a better pay offer that reflects their value to the health system,” PSA National Secretary Fleur Fitzsimons has said.
Nurses have protested staffing levels, and say they are risky, said nurse Handisides.
“The coalition government is totally out of touch and refusing to listen. They don’t understand what it’s like to work in a hospital where you are constantly short-staffed.
“It puts the safety of our patients at risk. When there aren’t enough nurses, care is delayed, and lives are put in danger. This is not a standard of care we trained for or that New Zealanders deserve.”
For senior doctors, the latest offer was for a salary increase of 5 percent over the 16-month term of the offer, with the ability to provide an additional increase for first-year specialists who would receive a $15,578 (8.4 percent) increase on base salary and all other salary related remuneration such as KiwiSaver. A $40 million fund is also proposed for distribution to senior doctors in recognition of the value of their work and to support the workforce.
About 36,000 nurses, midwives and health care assistants also went on strike in July for 24 hours.
Health NZ told RNZ if it proceeds, the strike would see more than 900 procedures cancelled and more than 1380 first specialist assessments wiped from the schedule.
The Public Service Commission said that the latest offers to primary and secondary teachers would deliver a 4.7 percent increase within 12 months. It said the latest offer would mean 66 percent of primary teachers would be paid a base salary of at least $100,000 within 21 months of ratification, while 76 percent of secondary teachers would receive the same.
The government is also spending $53 million to pay teachers’ registration and levies, of up to $550 per teacher.
“PPTA has received – on 5 September and 10 October – a couple of offers from the government for settlement of the secondary teachers’ settlement, but both fail to meet the needs of secondary teachers and students,” PPTA president Chris Abercrombie said.
Abercrombie said the offer included two pay rises – 2.5 percent after settlement and 2 percent 12 months after that – but no more until after the next bargaining started. He said that would probably mean up to 24 months with no further pay rises.
“In several ways it was worse than the previous offer, so we have proceeded with calling the strike action,” he said.
Teachers have also been holding rolling strike action since last week and they’re also scheduled to halt teaching extracurricular activities on 29 October and another nationwide strike on 5 November from 1.15 to 3.15pm.
Meanwhile, some primary principals accepted an offer from the government this weekend. Primary Principals Collective Bargaining Union agreed to a 2.5 percent pay rise this year, followed by a 2.1 percent rise next year, after four months of negotiation with the Ministry of Education.
Most primary and secondary schools will be closed. Check with your own school for information.
Luxon has said unions aren’t coming to the negotiating table.
“Kiwis suffer when unions take this sort of action rather than getting around the table and bargaining and continuing to negotiate – which is what they should be doing.”
Health Minister Simeon Brown also said health workers “crossed an ethical line” with strike plans.
He said patients were paying the price for the strike action, and accused the union of walking away from negotiations.
“Patients should never be collateral damage in disputes between management and unions.”
Education Minister Erica Stanford has also criticised the timing of the teacher strikes around NCEA exams which begin on 4 November.
“Those students who are going to miss out on days with these rolling strikes are about to go into their final exams,” Stanford told Morning Report recently. “They need their teacher in front of them for that very last minute revision.”
“They are negotiating in bad faith. They wanted to go to a strike, and they’ve done that,” she said.
“The fact that they’re all doing this on the same date … this is politics ahead of actually public service, which is what they should be about,” Brown has said.
The country has recorded at least 22 official work stoppages this year, The Detail reported.
“The government’s message of restraint is not going down very well at all, and that is understandable in view of the serious inequalities of wealth and income which have become evident in recent decades,” McAloon said.
“There are examples of people in fulltime employment resorting to food banks.
“What is particularly important in next week’s strike is that it involves mostly public sector workers, whose pay and conditions are directly linked to government policies.
“For years, under both National-led and Labour-led governments, teachers and health sector workers have noted that their sectors are under severe pressure.”
McAloon said other factors are also in play, such as the government’s changes to pay equity claims, persistently high food prices and changes to Jobseeker eligibility for 18- and 19-year-olds.
Wagstaff rejected claims unions were putting politics ahead of public service, and said he believed it’s actually the other way around.
“These workers have shown much patience for months and months to get a reasonable offer,” Wagstaff said.
“Instead they have been mucked around and expected to keep services operating despite under resourcing and under staffing. It is a coordinated government attack on these workers that is putting politics ahead of public service – not teachers and nurses.”
