With heavy hearts NZPFU members walk off the job for one hour today in a bid to get FENZ back to the bargaining table.   

Firefighters, 111 fire emergency dispatchers, volunteer support officers, trainers, those working in community resilience and risk reduction, those working in health, safety and wellbeing and other roles will walk away from their jobs and take their fight for safe systems of work and fair terms and conditions of employment to the streets.

It is very easy for the FENZ management to criticise the lawful strike but FENZ rolls the dice on emergency response to the public every day – every hour – with failing fire appliances and failing to maintain minimum staffing.

FENZ COULD HAVE STOPPED THIS STRIKE IF THEY HAD TURNED UP TO BARGAINING AND SUFFICIENTLY PROGRESSED THE BARGAINING

When NZPFU members strike they strike as a last resort.  FENZ has at least 14 days’ notice to prepare – or to act responsibility and meet to progress bargaining.

When NZPFU members take strike action the country is pre-warned, told the exact times the service will be affected.  FENZ can either progress the bargaining to stop the strike or prepare for the strike organising contingencies.

These strikes are notified and limited impacts on service. 

Every day the NZPFU is not striking there are uncontrolled and unpredicted impacts or stoppages to the service created by FENZ’s failure to properly resource the fire and emergency service so the public can be safely protected.

• Daily the response to the community is affected by fire trucks breaking down sometimes on the way to emergencies, sometimes leaving firefighters internally fighting a fire without water, sometimes leaving firefighters stranded in an aerial appliance above the flames. 

• Often the response to the community is affected by FENZ’s failure to employ sufficient firefighters which means crews respond dangerously understaffed or the truck/station is taken offline – and FENZ  have cancelled the January recruit course!

• It is not usual for the whole of New Zealand to be serviced by a sole 111 fire emergency dispatch centre and that sole dispatch centre could also be understaffed.

• New Zealand does not have one hot fire training facility that is fit for purpose!  Current recruits are being sent to Australia for this critical live fire training.

• FENZ firefighters are responding from stations that have dangerous earthquake ratings, asbestos or where their station has been closed and their community now waits extra minutes for response from another station that could be the difference between life and death.

Go to NZPFU Strike Event Locations to find the strike action in your area.

For more information on FENZ’s refusal to bargain go to: https://direemergency.nz/news/

In unity,
Wattie Watson
NZPFU National Secretary