On Monday, the New Zealand Professional Firefighters Union (NZPFU) started nationwide industrial action after negotiations for a collective agreement with Fire and Emergency New Zealand (Fenz) failed.
Ninety-nine percent of firefighters voted to reject the most recent offer from Fenz.
NZPFU Otago secretary and Lookout Point senior firefighter Mike Taylor said the negotiations centred on health and safety concerns the union firefighters had been raising, ageing equipment, staffing numbers and pay.
The industrial action would be focused on increasing public awareness over the issue through signs on trucks and stations.
Firefighters would still be responding to call-outs, Mr Taylor said.
The problems they raised were nationwide.
"The trucks are quite often older than the firefighters that are riding in them ... Fenz will tell you that they’re addressing this problem, but to date we’re still riding around on old trucks and we’re still getting regular breakdowns."
He said there was no ongoing replacement strategy for the aerial fleet around the country.
"Fenz will tell you that we’ve just procured five aerials across the country - which is true - but that was an emergency procurement because we were in such dire straits."
Mr Taylor said training was also a concern.
Firefighters currently receive no live firefighting training bar from when they were undergoing their initial training as a new firefighter.
"That’s a risk not just for us, but for the public that we’re supposed to be protecting."
Fenz also promised during the last negotiations to provide 200 new firefighters.
"To date that hasn’t happened," Mr Taylor said.
"They’re actually reneged on that deal and they’re cancelling courses in our training centre as we speak."
The industrial action would carry on until Fenz came back to the table and they could agree to terms, he said.
For now, it would stay as an awareness campaign and work would continue as normal.
"A lot of our industrial action has to take on the form of more belligerence, we still pull out the doors and we’re still responding to calls."
He said so far, the public had been brilliant in showing their support.
