Southern career firefighters may be walking off the job at the end of November for 10 hours at a time, after rejecting the latest pay offers from Fire and Emergency New Zealand (FENZ).
An overwhelming majority (99 percent) of union members rejected the October offer of 2.2 percent.
88 percent of national union members then voted to strike for 10 hours on four occasions from November 25 to December 25.
Southern NZPFU representative Brent Wilson said the email from the national committee for the New Zealand Professional Firefighters Union just came in this afternoon (Wed Nov 4) with the results.
An overwhelming majority (99 percent) of members voted for a no-confidence in Fire and Emergency (FENZ) senior management.
93 percent of members voted for Urban Search and Rescue deployments to be withdrawn.
Brent said he couldn’t remember when union members last organised a strike of this size - covering both the day and night shifts (five hours each).
He said FENZ would be notified shortly and the message was clear. They are standing strong and the latest offer was disgraceful.
A total 70 percent of union members attended meetings up and down the country over the past few weeks to consider the latest pay offer.
“We’re hoping that this strike notice will get them back around the table with some people that we can negotiate with.”
He said up until now, FENZ hasn’t been negotiating in good faith, and hoped they won’t need to resort to strike action, “but if necessary we will.”