100,000+ KIWIS RALLY AGAINST POOR PAY AND WORK CONDITIONS

Thu 23 October 2025:

More than 100,000 workers protested across New Zealand on Thursday in a nationwide strike over pay and working conditions, marking the country’s largest labor action in 40 years.

Striking workers included doctors, dentists, nurses, social workers, and primary and secondary school teachers, among others, according to Radio New Zealand (RNZ).

Several rallies had to be cancelled due to the severe weather on the South Island and lower North Island.

In the city of Auckland, on the North Island, thousands of protesters gathered in Aotea Square for speeches and a march.

Green Party co-leader Chloe Swarbrick blasted what she called the government’s “embarrassing” characterization of the protest as politically motivated.

“Of course this is political. Politics is about power and it’s about resources and it’s about who gets to make decisions that saturate and shape our daily lives,” she said.

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The crowd swelled to an estimated 10,000 in Hamilton’s rally.

Kimberly Jackson and her daughter were at the rally on behalf of her husband, a senior doctor who had to be at the hospital working as part of lifesaving measures.

“For us it is personal, but it’s also about this country that I love, that I’ve grown up in, and I can see terrible things happening in this country and I feel really passionate about public health care,” she said.

Jackson said she had seen the system deteriorate over her lifetime.

Chloe Wilshaw-Sparkes, regional chair of the Waikato PPTA said teachers were on strike because the offers from the government were not good enough.

“They’ve been saying ‘get round the table, have a conversation,’ but a conversation goes two ways and I think they need to be reminded of that,” she said.

Principal of Hamilton East School, Pippa Wright was at the rally with some of the school’s teachers.

She said she believed in the NZEI’s principles, and she wanted changes which would ensure schools had really good teachers in front of students.

Wright also said pay rates need to rise.

“So they’re not treated like graduates, and we need better conditions for teachers, and nurses, and all the public sector,” she said.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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