Auckland firefighters protest for better pay and work conditions. Photo: RNZ/Lucy Xia
About 60 firefighters marched in the sweltering heat, from their Pitt Street central Auckland fire station to Karangahape Road on Friday, protesting over pay and work conditions.
Banners highlighted concerns with the fleet, equipment and staffing. One banner said: "Dire trucks, dire station, dire management, dire straights".
Firefighter and union delegate Adam Wright said the protest wasn't just about pay.
He said the fleet was in tatters, with a conservative estimate of 800 firetruck breakdown in Auckland over a 12-month period.
Wright said firefighters were also more prone to certain types of cancers, due to the carcinogens they were exposed to in the job, and they also wanted to see more support for their sick colleagues.
He said more staff had been diagnosed in the past few weeks and he personally knew five colleagues undergoing cancer treatment.
They wanted to see "presumptive cancer legislation", which would see firefighters diagnosed with certain types of cancers have their conditions recognised as a work-related illness and receive more support for them.
Wright said New Zealand firefighters currently had to fight with the ACC toxicology panel to have their conditions recognised as work related.
Another Auckland firefighter, who didn't want to be named, said the current state of the fleet was not sustainable.
"I don't know if the public realises that our equipment fail us constantly and we have to ad hoc repair them on the go, so that we can do our jobs," he said. "This is the reality, this is what we have to do to get attention to what we're going through."
He said he just wanted to do his job with the right equipment and he was disappointed that their voices were not being heard by FENZ leadership.
"Our leaders - so-called leaders - they know this. They were on the trucks themselves, they're one of us.
"They say we're one waka, one group, one people, but there's a huge disconnect between us and them."
Auckland firefighters protest for better pay and work conditions. Photo: RNZ/Lucy Xia
Around the country, other paid firefighters walked off the job for one hour over their deadlocked contract negotiations with FENZ.
About 2000 members of the Professional Firefighters' Union went on strike between 12-1pm.
Before the stoppage, FENZ deputy national commander Megan Stiffler said calls to 111 would be answered during that time and it would respond to fires in strike-affected areas - but there could be some delays, as callouts would be covered by volunteers.
"We have notified Hato Hone St John and Wellington Free Ambulance that, for the one-hour strike, our volunteer crews won't be able to respond to medical calls outside their patch."
While the strike was "putting public safety at risk", it would not affect most of the country, she said.
"The vast majority of communities are served by our more than 11,000 volunteers in nearly 600 stations across New Zealand who will respond as usual."
Fire and Emergency said it received calls for 18 emergencies during the hour long strike, 13 of which were in areas where firefighters were striking.
"Eight of these incidents were in response to fire alarms that did not result in a fire. The remaining incidents related to two motor vehicle crashes, two confirmed fires, and one request for assistance from an ambulance service," a statement read.
Stiffler said she was disappointed the union had issued two more strike notices for the December 5 and 12.
"I urge the NZPFU to withdraw these latest strike notices and not issue any more while the Employment Relations Authority is considering our application to provide facilitation," she said.
"This is in the best interests of our people, and New Zealand's communities."
'Fair, sustainable increase'
FENZ said its offer to the union (6.2 percent over three years) was "a fair and sustainable increase", Stifler said.
"The Employment Relations Authority is currently considering our application to provide facilitation to bring the parties together and work constructively towards a resolution.
"We don't see the point in putting the community at risk with this strike while that process plays out. The NZPFU's recent settlement proposal is three times more than our offer, which was fair, reasonable and in line with other settlements across the public service."
Union responds
The union's national secretary, Wattie Watson, said the union had worked hard to get a settlement - but FENZ has refused to return to the table.
"FENZ has refused to adapt its position and last week refused to agree to new bargaining dates on the basis they only want to meet in facilitation. The Employment Relations Authority only received the final legal submissions yesterday and a decision is pending.
"Instead of actually trying to reach settlement and address the systemic failings of the fire service, FENZ has pushed on with an application for facilitation, attempted to present distorted information in the pursuit of that application, dropped a 260-page restructure document that culls about 160 jobs without consulting with the NZPFU or the PSA, refuses to address serious asbestos risks in Auckland, and continues to fail the community with a failing fleet and replace closed stations or those under extremely poor earthquake ratings."
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