A bulk of some of society’s most important workers - from doctors, nurses, teachers, prison staff and other healthcare personnel - will walk off the job next Thursday in a mega industrial strike tipped to be the largest in New Zealand in recent history. An estimated 100,000 workers from the public sector - also including dentists, social workers, physiotherapists and mental health staffers - are set to be involved, as they take a stand for better pay and conditions, as well as raising concerns around safe staffing levels. Public Service Minister Judith Collins, meanwhile, has released an open letter to anyone who will be impacted by the strikes and said they appeared to be “politically motivated by the unions”. Who is striking? About 17,000 health members with the Public Service Association are taking part in the strike on October 23. They are made up of allied health staff, mental and public health nurses, home support workers and policy, knowledge, advisory and specialist workers who want fair pay, safe staffing and improved conditions to give what they say is quality care patients deserve. Why are they striking? PSA national secretary Fleur Fitzsimons said its members were standing up for safe staffing and for the public health service. “We have been heartened by the overwhelming support from the public for the strikes, and we know that the protests on the day will be an expression of solidarity between workers in health, education ... and the public they serve. “These workers have not taken strike action lightly, but consider they have a responsibility to stand up for the health service they know New Zealanders need.” PSA general secretary Fleur Fitzsimons. Photo / Sylvie Whinray Health NZ’s pay offers have been criticised by senior doctors, with the PSA describing a 2 per cent rise, followed by a 1.5 per cent increase over a 30-month period as being well below inflation. “The pay offers are effectively pay cuts during a cost-of-living crisis. We risk losing more health workers to Australia,” the PSA said. There are not enough health workers to provide the level of care Kiwis need and, to make up numbers, staff were often having to pull double shifts. “They can’t give their best to patients when they’re so thinly stretched and burnt out.” The NZ Educational Institute has confirmed more than 40,000 of its members will strike for extra classroom support for children with diverse learning needs. More than 20,000 unionised secondary and area school teachers are also involved in the mega strike due to a lack of progress with collective agreement negotiations, the Post-Primary Teachers’ Association confirmed earlier this month. A 1% pay rise offer from the Government, in August, had also served as a trigger; dubbed by the PPTA as “appalling” and the lowest increase in a generation. Underpaid and understaffed, workers ‘infuriated’ Allied health workers strike in Auckland in 2022. Photo / RNZ, Felix Walton NZ Council of Trade Unions president Richard Wagstaff said the strike action was in response to a centralised government strategy to hold down wages below inflation and to cut resources to the public service. He said the wide range of professional workers had been negotiating for more than a year, in some cases. The only response they had received, he said, was from employers wanting them to be locked into a long-term agreement with pay adjustments under inflation. “And they’ve given them no proper response to the resource issues - the short staffing, the breaking down of equipment and so on. “They know that by cutting wages and by basically having people overworked and underpaid, it really risks the workforce dissipating and leaving for better places, particularly Australia.” Wagstaff said it was unfair and “quite infuriating” for workers, given that the Government has said it would address the cost-of-living crisis. “And here they are telling their own workers - their essential workers who keep everything running - tha...