Thousands of New Zealand tertiary union members will go on strike at eight universities tomorrow over a cost of living pay demand.

The Tertiary Education Union (TEU) said its members were walking off the job for part of the day at the eight universities in the country.

Union members at Auckland University of Technology initially planned to refuse to enter students’ marks from October 6 to 21, the union said.

However, after the AUT management warned that striking staff would face suspension and loss of pay for two weeks, TEU withdrew the action so that staff would join the Thursday strike instead, a later union statement said today.

The TEU, which has 7000 members, is demanding an 8 percent pay rise needed to keep up with the cost of living.

Each university was negotiating its own collective agreements with the union, but the agreements expired at about the same time enabling a co-ordinated industrial action.

The action announced includes full stoppage between 1pm and 5pm at University of Auckland, University of Waikato and AUT; from 12pm to 4.30pm at Victoria University of Wellington and for shorter periods at three other universities.

There will be rallies at each university and marches and pickets at Waikato and Massey universities.

On its website, the University of Auckland stated it had explained to the unions that it had made an offer that was fair and reasonable and rewarded staff, while retaining fiscal responsibility.

“The university has made a best offer of a 5 percent and 4 percent general revision offer over two years, subject to certain conditions,” the statement said.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Striking New Zealand health workers have picketed around the country, saying they are fed up with being underpaid and undervalued.

About 10,000 allied health staff who work at district health boards have walked off the job for 24 hours, with rolling demonstrations.

They are health workers who are not doctors or nurses.

One of the first pickets has been outside Hutt Hospital, with workers chanting and holding signs, and getting lots of beeps of support from passing cars.

Social worker Lorraine Tetley said her team was losing social workers to higher paid jobs in the public sector.

Those left behind felt undervalued, she said.

“They’re essential workers who work on the frontline during the pandemic. Every day we work with risk and we work with vulnerable families and we’re not paid fairly for the work we do,” she said.

Working hard under covid
Dental therapist Char Blake said they had been working really hard, especially after the lockdown and covid restrictions.

“We love caring for patients but is just really hard to pay for things with the price of things going up and we’ve waited 18 months for a pay rise,” Blake said.

Today’s allied health workers strike. Video: RNZ News

Her service was six people short, and in danger of losing more.

“It can be quite stressful at times — we have to do more than we are supposed to at times. We don’t want to let our patients down,” she said.

Jane McWhirter tests newborn babies’ hearing and says she is earning the same amount as her 16-year-old daughter who works at Dominoes Pizza.

She says even though she is training on the job, she is doing important, skilled work and she and her colleagues deserves better.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz