Yesterday, striking firefighters gathered to donate blood at the New Zealand Blood Service’s Dunedin donor centre.
Fire and Emergency New Zealand (Fenz) and the New Zealand Professional Firefighters Union (NZPFU) have been unable to settle the career firefighters’ collective employment agreement for months, with all talks failing.
NZPFU firefighters have now pivoted away from standard strikes outside fire stations, and moved to doing what they love to do, serving the community.
NZPFU Dunedin secretary and Senior Firefighter Mike Taylor said the ongoing one-hour strikes on Mondays and Fridays was tough, so they thought they should give back to the community.
It was being dubbed ‘‘strike for good’’.
This week, they decided to give blood in Dunedin.
‘‘We’re still in a position where Fenz aren’t negotiating with us so the strikes are ongoing, so the Dunedin brigades decided to try and do something constructive and community focused for these hour-strikes.
‘‘One of the ideas was to donate blood.’’
The five firefighters who donated blood yesterday were all off duty, as it was highly recommended people who gave blood avoided heavy lifting afterwards.
SFF Taylor said anyone in the community who could benefit from some free labour from a group of firefighters should get in touch.
It was Senior Firefighter Jamie McBride’s first time donating blood.
‘‘It’s something I’ve been meaning to do for a while and this is just like a good excuse to do it,’’ he said.
In August, NZPFU started nationwide industrial action after negotiations for a collective agreement with Fenz failed.
The talks centred on health and safety concerns, ageing equipment, staffing numbers and pay.
Career firefighters nationwide have walked off the job for one hour almost 20 times since discussions with Fenz initially failed.
