Picket Lines
The Ministers vs the Mega Strike.
Picket lines and picket signs
Don’t punish me with brutality
Talk to me, so you can see
Oh, what’s going on (What’s going on)
What’s going on (What’s going on)
Yeah, what’s going on (What’s going on)
Oh, what’s going on
Songwriters: Alfred Cleveland, Marvin Gaye, Renaldo Benson.
I cannot think of a time in our nation’s history with the level of strike action this government has motivated. From Te Tiriti o Waitangi to concerns over tobacco funding, fast-track development, and an embarrassing slowness in responding to genocide.
Alongside these, there are issues with funding the public sector, particularly our healthcare. We’ve seen multiple rounds of negotiations and strikes with seemingly little progress or goodwill, and things are coming to a head.
This Thursday, October 23rd, will see widespread strike action, a mega-strike, across various sectors, particularly in healthcare and education.
Despite the size of protests against the Treaty Principles Bill and our non-acknowledgement of Palestine, this one looks like it will be even larger. Up to 100,000 nurses, midwives, doctors, dentists, other healthcare workers and teachers are expected to take to the streets, alongside thousands of other Kiwis who are concerned about the pressures on our under-resourced services.
You can find the list of protests from Kaitaia to Invercargill here.
An ethical line.
This week, Health Minister Simeon Brown could have reached out at the senior doctors’ annual conference, acknowledging funding problems and committing to work with the sector to address resourcing issues and pay claims; instead, he urged them to “call off” strike action and went on the attack.
His accusation was met with shock; some attendees laughed at the cheek of the man pointing fingers at the sector, exaggerating current pay, and accusing those who care so much of crossing an ethical line and hurting patients with the procedures that will be postponed as a result.
Association of Salaried Medical Specialists executive director Sarah Dalton said it was wrong to suggest those who will strike had forgotten patients, saying, “In fact, that is a key driver in what is pushing our members to take strike action in the face of Health NZ and a government that is deaf to what is really going on with our health workforce.”
I was disgusted and posted:
#BREAKING Man who has no ethical qualms about underfunding healthcare to the point where Kiwis are dying early blames doctors...
Te Manawa commented, “Wet behind the ears pup - just like Seymour - zero commitment to Aotearoa. He is a Christian fundamentalist without the Jesus infusion.”
Peter noted, “This is rather hypocritical.” I countered, “Hippocratical even.” I don’t imagine a Health Minister makes any such oath, but perhaps they ought to.
Lesley suggested that Brown “read the room”.
Surely he doesn’t believe he can manoeuvre public opinion against our nurses and doctors? Every one of us who has interacted with the public health system recently knows it’s struggling, despite the heroic efforts of those working in the sector.
The government want positive health headlines, but promising new equipment, medications, or maternity stays are all well and good, but not if there is no resource to utilise, administer, and care for them.
The irony of the government claiming that they can’t do more to fix health was not lost on Christian, who said:
They helped out the tobacco industry, they helped rich people with large portfolios of property to sit back and passively get richer, they gave gas exploration companies blank checks to look for gas that might not be there, they gave millions to overseas companies to make mysterious, inedible lunches for our school kids and put local providers out of work.
But when it comes to paying those who contribute to our country and our communities, the change purse snaps shut after they eek out a penny or two and tell us to be grateful.
Frankie said that the Minister “wouldn’t know an ethical line if he fell over it”, and David offered, “Odious weasel.”
Debbie said, “The last time I spoke to a senior Dr about Simeon, his words as he looked off into the distance were, ‘I have nothing good to say about that man.’”
This month, the members of the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists voted 83 percent in favour of a four-hour strike on Thursday, 23 October, from 11:00 a.m.
Think of the children.
As Simeon was sowing seeds of discontent against our health workforce, Erica Stanford was doing similar in education, pointing fingers at teachers over upcoming strikes.
Stanford said “parents should be furious” as the strikes fall on exam days, planting more seeds.
“Those students who are going to miss out on days with these rolling strikes are about to go into their final exams,” Stanford told RNZ on Tuesday. “They need their teacher in front of them for that very last-minute revision.”
Do they, though?
I thought back to the secondary teachers’ strike last month, my youngest lad was doing a mock exam that day. His preparation was uninterrupted, as the kids had a study break before exams, when Erica said they needed the teacher's support. There was no disruption to his sitting, for what was just a practice exam.
The emotive claims that teachers would let children down and allow their exams to be adversely affected were the same tactic applied by Simeon.
I saw the following post shared, which clarifies matters:
If you heard Erica Stanford on RNZ not long ago claiming that our strike on Nov 5 will mean students can’t do their Level 3 English exams, please rest assured that she’s completely wrong.
Teachers have nothing to do with the invigilation of external exams. The exams will proceed as usual.
What you should be concerned about is the fact that the Minister of Education has no idea about what happens in schools. She’s already admitted over the past few months that she doesn’t understand NCEA, and endorsed the ridiculously misleading claim that teachers earn almost $150K a year.
She’s either woefully ignorant - which is not a great sign of competence when you’ve been in the role for almost two years - or she is deliberately deceptive and intentionally lying to the public. Either of those two scenarios is concerning.
In the absence of a reasonable offer from the government, the following strikes are scheduled:
Thursday, October 23 - Nationwide one-day strike
Wednesday, October 29 - No teaching extracurricular activities
Wednesday, November 5 - Nationwide strike from 1.15 - 3.15 pm
Don’t fight back.
Not content with bad-mouthing hard-working public servants for having the temerity to stand up for better quality services, Minister Brown said he was looking to restrict the right to such protests.
Speaking to RNZ on Friday morning, Brown poured petrol on his previous accusations, saying, “Multiple strikes have a long and hard impact on patients, the patients who they are there to serve. It is their duty to serve those patients, and by the union choosing to continue to pursue strike action, that is crossing an ethical line.”
On RNZ, “Brown acknowledged a right to strike is a legal right, but said changes to the law may have to be considered for life services.”
Simeon said, “I think if strike action continues, that may well have to be considered. I would like to find a way that we can resolve this issue.”
That’s the thin end of the wedge, and no doubt National would love to ban strikes across a range of sectors, although the boy blunder appeared to be making things up on the spot, as such a ban isn’t official policy even if it’s their heart’s desire.
Labour’s health spokesperson, Ayesha Verrall, said, “Simeon Brown needs to grow up. He needs to stop taking these public positions that are designed to provoke and make it harder to reach a settlement. He is issuing a threat to remove the right to strike while these parties are in bargaining - that is not in good faith.”
They’re not all the same.
Ayesha is not the only one who gets it. This week, you might’ve seen a post from Green MP Tamatha Paul, who shared details of her health and her thoughts on the strike.
Tamatha had been waiting for surgery for a year, which she had now received, and said, “It’s been so long, despite being 'urgent’, because our health system is under such immense strain.”
Paul wrote:
I wholeheartedly support our nurses and doctors. I wholeheartedly support their strikes, even if it inconveniences me, because I know that they deserve safe working conditions and fair pay.
Nurses and doctors work so damn hard, and it makes me feel ill when I see the Health Minister attacking their ethics or blaming them for surgery delays. It is not their fault, Minister. It is yours.
You chose to give our money away to tobacco companies. You chose to throw more money per person into new prison beds than into new hospital beds.
Therefore, you will be accountable for the worrying decline of our public healthcare system. And WE will work together to rebuild our health system to the standard that our country deserves.
They’re not all the same.
On the one hand, you have people like Erica Stanford and Simeon Brown who disregard those who work in these sectors and attack them if they stand up for their students and patients.
On the other hand, you have people like Tamatha Paul and Ayesha Verrall who acknowledge there are problems, listen to concerns, and prioritise our health sector over things like making donations to tobacco companies.
We all know that our waiting lists and wait times are too long, causing unnecessary suffering and risking effective treatment. Why would you support people who would happily throw those who are currently overworked under a bus to save face?
Have a great Sunday, all of you lovely people, and best wishes to all those marching on Thursday, whether you are involved in the sector or there in support.
Our education and health professionals do a fantastic job. How bloody dare these government ministers attack them for wanting to do better?
Subscribe to Nick’s Kōrero to access all my writing and support me in creating it.
Ngā mihi,
Nick.
To end today, here’s Playing For Change with What’s Going On.
Years and years of intensive training, long hours, dedication to keeping up with new research, technologies and research - this doesn’t describe the training of a politician, does it. If we need a specialist urgently, we expect doctors and nurses to be there. Nobody ever needed a Minister of Health urgently…
As a long term unionist Nick your post this morning has stirred many memories. It is interesting yet concerning how these second rate politicians use the term unions as if unions are somehow different than those who are striking. This is the same playbook I remember from my personal experience when Lockwood Smith attempted to destroy the NZEI. It indicates a deliberate ignorance of politicians not to recognise that membership of a union comprises those working in the sector and no strike action is ever undertaken unless totally justified and supported by the majority of workers. Lack of funding for essential professionals could only be justified if the required funding had not been used for other choices. I suggest the Miniature of Health approach Judith Collins and use the money destined for the US arms industry to rescue our Health system. Stanford also spins a totally misleading press release which only reinforces her position as another minister in this COC of incompetents and duplicitous actors.