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Ryan Bridge: Here we go again with the nurses strikes · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

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  Speaker 1: If you've got an appointment at the hospital this week,
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  Speaker 1: you might want to check it's still going ahead. Why
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  Speaker 1: the nurses are going on strike tomorrow and here are
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  Speaker 1: the numbers for you. Kicks off at nine am tomorrow
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  Speaker 1: morning and will last twenty four hours. Four thousand, three
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  Speaker 1: hundred surgeries and specialist appointments are going to be affected.
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  Speaker 1: Thirty six thousand nurses taking part. It's a complete withdrawal
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  Speaker 1: of labor. It'll affect anywhere that Health New Zealand provides
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  Speaker 1: health or hospital care, so your clinics but also your
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: hospitals and of course the middle of winter, so great timing.
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  Speaker 1: Nurses union being bargaining the usual staff pay, staffing levels
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  Speaker 1: also as usual. They say it's life or death. You
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  Speaker 1: will be seen to. They had a bargaining meeting yesterday
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  Speaker 1: with Health New Zealand obviously didn't go well. They've been
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  Speaker 1: bargaining since last September. The nurses say two short staffed
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  Speaker 1: and your nurses who are leaving are not being replaced. However,
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  Speaker 1: Health New Zealand says a new graduate nurse on seventy
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  Speaker 1: five thousand dollars we'd get a total pay increase of
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  Speaker 1: eight and a half thousand dollars, it's eleven percent by
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  Speaker 1: the end of June next year. And what's more, they
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  Speaker 1: say the average salary for both senior and registered nurses,
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  Speaker 1: including overtime allowances and penal rates of one hundred and
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  Speaker 1: twenty five grand. Until these guys sort out who's right
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  Speaker 1: and come to some sort of agreement, this may not
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  Speaker 1: be the last hospital strike that we patients must endure
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  Speaker 1: This week. For more from Early Edition with Ryan Bridge,
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: listen live to News Talks it be from five am weekdays,
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  Speaker 1: or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.