WELLINGTON:
More than 100,000 New Zealand teachers, nurses, doctors, firefighters and support staff walked out on Thursday to demand more money and resources for the public sector, a sign of growing discontent with the country’s center-right government.
Officials marched with signs and banners through towns across New Zealand, chanting and listening to speeches. However, protests in the capital Wellington as well as Christchurch had to be canceled due to dangerous weather conditions.
The unions, in a joint statement last week, called the strike the largest in decades, with more than 100,000 civil servants participating. The government has called the protests a “political coup orchestrated by the unions,” even as the demonstrations highlight growing public unease with its leadership.
Sylvia Boys, an emergency doctor at Middlemore Hospital and vice-president of the Association of Salaried Specialist Doctors, told the crowd gathered at Aotea Square in Auckland that the government had been elected on promises to reduce the cost of living, but “the cost of living has gotten worse”.
