Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Faye McCann: First Union Spokesperson on the ambulance workers striking later this month

Transcript

Faye McCann: First Union Spokesperson on the ambulance workers striking later this month · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: More than two and a half thousand ambulance offices are
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: going on strike this month. It comes after failed pay
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: negotiations with Saint John, who says it has no money
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: and is relying on Health New Zealand to bring something
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: to the table. First Union and Ambulance Association members voted
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: to stagger four hour withdrawals of labor over two days.
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: Famer Can is with First Union, She's with us this morning, Fae.
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: How will this work? This withdrawal of labor.
• 0:28
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so our members basically will show up to work late,
• 0:32
  Speaker 3: four hours late on the twenty s and on the
• 0:34
  Speaker 3: twenty fourth of August.
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: And how will that affect the service?
• 0:41
  Speaker 3: So there will be less ambulances available, there'll be less
• 0:44
  Speaker 3: call handlers to answer calls, less the statues. Ultimately, we
• 0:49
  Speaker 3: do go on to an agreement with Saint John to
• 0:51
  Speaker 3: provide minimum staffing numbers, so it'll bear reduced service, but
• 0:55
  Speaker 3: there'll still be ambulances available there for people.
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: When you it's how many any of your members are
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: going to be turning up late?
• 1:03
  Speaker 3: So we represent a thousand members and astoundingly, ninety five
• 1:08
  Speaker 3: percent of them were keen to take this action. It's
• 1:11
  Speaker 3: unfortunate that we've got to the stage. Obviously it's not
• 1:14
  Speaker 3: the ideal situation, and we took a lot of different
• 1:17
  Speaker 3: strike actions before this, but ultimately the government has chosen
• 1:20
  Speaker 3: to ignore their voices. So this is then making sure
• 1:22
  Speaker 3: that they're heard.
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: So that's a thousand of your members who won't be
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: coming for the first four hours of the shift. Do
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: you know how many will with the life preserving agreement
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: You're going to nut out with Saint John, how many
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: will be on board?
• 1:39
  Speaker 3: I know we're not into that detail.
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: At the moment. Is it going to will people die?
• 1:46
  Speaker 3: We're hoping that people won't die, but they will certainly
• 1:48
  Speaker 3: be delayed. Ultimately, what we would like is the government
• 1:51
  Speaker 3: to step in to give more funding because the issue
• 1:54
  Speaker 3: that we're seeing is if our members don't take action now,
• 1:58
  Speaker 3: is ultimately the ambulance of us is going to crumble.
• 2:01
  Speaker 3: So although it's some of this is to do with
• 2:04
  Speaker 3: pay that, ultimately it is to do with them going
• 2:06
  Speaker 3: to work each day in a system that's not working
• 2:09
  Speaker 3: and then seeing the risks if it continues to work
• 2:12
  Speaker 3: in that way.
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: Faye, one of our listeners is just texting to say
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: don't call the ambulance call an uber, they'll get you
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: to hospital quicker.
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: Ye. Are people going to have to do stuff like that?
• 2:23
  Speaker 3: Yeah, But the sad reality is that that's say on
• 2:26
  Speaker 3: a day to day basis at the moment, that's what
• 2:28
  Speaker 3: we're hearing that people are like, our members are going
• 2:30
  Speaker 3: to people who have been waiting for hours and they
• 2:32
  Speaker 3: shouldn't have been waiting for hours.
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: Faith, Thanks for your time this morning, Famercan, the National
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: Ambulance coordinator for First Union. For more from News Talks
• 2:42
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• 2:45
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• 2:47
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