Covid 19 coronavirus: nurses strike during possible vaccine launch – union

By RNZ

The New Zealand Nurses Organization will not rule out a strike during the mass launch of the Covid-19 vaccine if it cannot reach an agreement on satisfactory payment arrangements, it says.

The Government revealed yesterday that it has purchased enough Pfizer Covid-19 vaccines for the entire country and hopes to reach herd immunity levels by the end of the year.

Nine hundred vaccinators have been trained to give the Pfizer injection, but the Health Ministry wants up to 3,000 additional full-time immunizers for the mass launch of the vaccine, and most of them are likely to be nurses.

Nurses Organization industrial manager Glenda Alexander says it will be a huge request to bring so many people together.

“There is a real effort being made to find people with the right qualifications, and even some of my colleagues who are not working as nurses at the moment have been exploring whether or not they could do some of that work as well.”

Alexander said the prerequisites for administering a vaccine injection would include work experience in the healthcare sector, but full training is provided.

“They are certainly looking for candidates to do this job, from non-practicing nurses and doctors or pharmacists, you have students, medical students, nursing students, pharmacy students.

“There are other healthcare professionals who may have had vaccines in their field of practice and that may include, for example, dentists and physical therapists. So there is quite a wide range, but hopefully people will have those kinds of vaccines. minimum qualification to be able to do this job.

“Potentially in the future, I think lay people could be trained and the emphasis is on training and qualification, so it would be necessary for people to meet a standard before they are allowed to do that, which includes not just the technique of giving injections and so on, but also in terms of making sure they know what to do if there’s an adverse reaction or whatever.

“But also within the workforce that is required, there will be other people there to support the workforce. So there will be a wide range of people from the administration who will be involved to make sure the vaccines are properly documented and registered. “.

Alexander said the number of nurses vaccinated and ready to go stood at 900.

“The nurses are doing their normal job at full throttle, so this is a job that this time last year we didn’t even have on our schedule, so it was about again demonstrating the adaptability of nurses to whatever. is presented to them.

“Are they really ready? I think they have to be ready because we know this is something important that needs to happen and I am sure they will find a way that they can support our communities by administering these vaccines.

“But it’s not an easy task … quite a gigantic one when you think about the size of the task that we actually have ahead of us.”

Nurses are always in high demand, Alexander said. “We know how valuable nurses are every day and we certainly feel like the public has recognized this many times. But I think the reality is that there have never been enough, there never will be, and we don’t think they are paid or valued what it is. the value of work It is a continuous battle we have.

“We have contract or collective bargaining negotiations across the healthcare sector. One couple is probably more notable than others. We have just concluded the negotiation around the primary health care MECA, which is the agreement we have with multiple doctors from Headboard”. practices “.

In response to a question about whether a strike would occur during the launch of the Covid-19 vaccine, Alexander said: “I cannot guarantee anything in that regard because we are not at that point yet.

“Last year there was an industrial action around the support of primary health care. This is in a critical stage, we are very hopeful that there will be a solution that does not mean that we have to even contemplate it.

“We are as aware as anyone in this country of the situation regarding nurses and the value of their work, and we hope to find a solution that means that we will not have to go down that path. But I cannot guarantee that the solution will be found. or that won’t happen. “

He said that achieving herd immunity in New Zealand could be realistic, given the implementation plan.

“It is a program that is accelerating a lot. I think it is very likely that we will reach that level by the end of the year. But again, that is based on things going according to plan.

“It is also [based on] Things are not changing in terms of more disruptions due to changes in alert level, so we hope this helps protect those who provide health services and those in the communities will have infections if that comes down to it. Therefore, it is very important that we achieve this implementation to avoid further disruptions in the future. “

Health Minister Andrew Little said in a statement: “The Health Ministry has informed me about the progress of the negotiations.”

“I am satisfied with what I have heard that the parties are focused on a constructive outcome.”

– RNZ