As members will know, First Union members of St Johns are scheduled to strike on Wednesday 25 November.

The Local is aware that the majority of St John’s staff in Auckland are First Union members and, as such, concerns have been raised that this could result in our members being responded to St John’s incidents if the arrangements organised by Ambulance fall through, or they are unable to meet response criteria due to no Ambulances being available.

If members note that they are responded to events outside of the "purple" criteria, or experience significant delays in the arrival of Ambulance resources to incidents, including specialist medical advice, Area Management and the Local should be immediately advised.

As per the current Memorandum of Understanding, FENZ resources should ONLY be responded to "purple" type events such as cardiac arrest, non-breathing patients, or life-threatening situations.

The Auckland Local is in complete solidarity with our fellow emergency service brothers and sisters in their efforts to achieve the pay rises promised to them during their last pay negotiations.

It is an unprecedented move that front line emergency service workers are forced to strike and remove their labour, in order to force their organisation to comply with previously agreed terms and conditions of employment.

The current COVID environment should not be a catch all excuse for employers to unilaterally remove previously agreed conditions.  Employees have the right to a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work.

Whilst the Local hopes that an acceptable agreement can be reached between the Union and St John before next Wednesday, we are 100% behind First Union Ambulance staff.

If there are any questions around this situation, please contact one of the Local Executive.