Kia ora,
Many of you will have seen that Parliament is moving to hold a Select Committee inquiry into the state of Fire and Emergency’s fleet.
While this is an important development, it hasn't happened by chance.
It happened because members have continued to speak up, the Union has continued to apply pressure, and people outside the organisation are beginning to understand the reality of what firefighters and the public have been dealing with.
While the announced inquiry is to be focused on fleet, the issues inside Fire and Emergency run much deeper than trucks and appliances.
Fleet problems sit alongside staffing pressures, capability gaps, funding questions, and repeated leadership failure to deal honestly with frontline realities.
That's why we're calling for broader scrutiny into Fire and Emergency’s funding, operational capacity and capability, and employment practices. Because these issues are connected.
Our public campaign continues. Industrial action remains a significant part of that campaign. Support from the public and political engagement matters every day. Keep having conversations with whānau, friends, and members of the community about our concerns.
Please continue to support the petition and continue talking to people about what's really happening.
We need visible support, not silent support.
We also continue to challenge the unlawful deduction of strike pay and the ongoing attempts to reinterpret the Collective Employment
Agreement to reduce member entitlements.
Members are right to be angry about that.
We should not have to fight to be paid correctly. We should not have to fight to have agreed conditions honoured.
Yet here we are.
We will continue to challenge those actions through every avenue available to us; industrial, legal, and public.
Finally, I want to acknowledge some very sad news.
Kua hinga te tōtara i Te Waonui-a-Tāne (A tōtara tree has fallen in the great forest of Tāne).
Yesterday we lost retired firefighter and NZPFU Honorary Life Member Ian Richards.
Moe mai rā e te rangatira.
Ian gave many years of service to his community, to the job, and to this Union, including as a former Auckland Local Secretary. On behalf of the NZPFU, I extend condolences to Ian’s whānau, friends, colleagues, and all those affected by his passing, including the crews who attended.
This job can ask a lot of people, and life outside the job can ask even more.
Please look after yourselves and each other.
Stay united. Stay disciplined. Keep backing each other.
Kia kaha, Stronger Together.
NāJoseph Stanley - National President
