99% VOTE FOR INDUSTRIAL ACTION
NZPFU members have sent a strong message to FENZ that they will not be accepting the disgraceful offer and have overwhelmingly empowered the Union to bring on industrial action including strikes.
The NZPFU membership secret ballots taken at the national round of Local meetings have now been counted. NZPFU members are standing strong in solidarity in rejecting FENZ’s June offer and resoundingly voting for a range of industrial action including stoppages. The National Council and National Committee representatives attended 24 membership meetings across the 19 Locals between 6 July and 22 July. Only those that attended the meetings were able to cast their votes.
The detailed results of the 5 ballots are available for download.
- 99% of those that attended the meetings voted to reject the offer
- 99% voted for industrial action
- 97% voted for strikes/stoppages
The membership will again fight to have safe systems of work and to ensure that the NZ public have the fire and emergency protection they deserve.
Since the 2022 negotiations it is the Union’s view that the risk to health and safety of our members has escalated. Some examples of the increasing risk are:
- The fire appliance fleet is failing and FENZ has still not commissioned one new fire appliance since the last industrial action.
- FENZ has failed to implement a national aerial appliance strategy as was directed by the 2020 Operational Review into 2019 Auckland International Convention Centre Fire, that raged for 5 days blanketing central Auckland in toxic smoke. The majority of the aerial fleet is now at or well past its end of life.
- FENZ is walking away from the additional firefighters that the Board had agreed “in principle” and that were necessary to ensure minimum staffing of fire appliances and to keep stations open. FENZ has already cancelled one recruit firefighter course in 2026 and has indicated a second of the four courses is at risk.
- FENZ has reneged on the necessary urgency to rebuild Tauranga City Station that has an abysmal seismic rating and rolling the dice on the lives of those that work there with every seismic event.
- FENZ has reneged on the desperately needed increase in staffing for the 111 emergency call centre which FENZ itself proposed. FENZ is now proposing radical changes to the Wellington 111 fire emergency call centre including considering only operating it during office hours and only on weekdays.
FENZ recently released a reorganisation document that again places its focus on a corporate structure while ignoring the appalling state of its emergency response capability and capacity. Once again public funding is being spent on high-paid corporate roles while FENZ claims it cannot afford to give NZPFU members the resources they need in order to respond and protect the community.
NZPFU members will be keep informed of preparation for industrial action and will be notified when industrial action and strike notices are issued. Until then nothing changes and no action is to take place.
In unity
Wattie Watson
National Secretary
