Career firefighters plan to walk off the job for 10 hours at a time in the weeks before Christmas, starting on Friday 27 November. The New Zealand Professional Firefighters Union (NZPFU) says 88 percent of members voted for four 10-hour strikes between 25 November and 25 December.
RNZ reports the stoppages would run from 1pm to 11pm once a week, with union members in 19 towns and cities striking at the same time.
Fire and Emergency New Zealand (FENZ) says that "will create an extreme risk to public safety."
"These strikes could have fatal consequences," national commander Megan Stiffler said. "We will do everything practically possible to protect the public, but there are significant gaps in the emergency response we can provide that simply cannot be filled."
Why are firefighters striking?
The dispute is about pay and conditions in a collective agreement that has been under negotiation for more than two years.
The union says 99 percent of members rejected FENZ's October offer, and that its members have not had a pay rise since July 2023. It has held 72 one-hour strikes since October 2025.
FENZ says its latest proposal averaged a 2.5 percent increase in the first year, made up of salary and allowances, followed by 2.2 percent in the second year. It says the union's last claim was for 18.5 percent over two years. FENZ modelled its own offer at about $50 million over four years and the union's at about $130 million.
The union also says 93 percent of members agreed to withdraw from international urban search and rescue deployments.
What happens if you call 111 during a strike?
FENZ has said it will release more detail on the timing, locations and operational impact of the 10-hour strikes.
The union says that during a 10-hour stoppage there would be no career firefighters, and none of its 111 call-takers or dispatchers, on duty.
For the shorter one-hour strikes, FENZ has said all 111 calls are received and responded to, but response times are slower in strike-affected areas because volunteer crews come from the next closest location. It has also said it may not attend less serious incidents during strikes, such as:
- private fire alarms with no sign of fire
- small rubbish fires
- traffic management help
- animal rescues
Volunteers will still respond to incidents during the longer strikes, Stiffler said, "but we cannot replicate the specialist skills, equipment and coverage normally provided by paid firefighters."
How to lower the risk at home
FENZ asks people to take extra care during strike periods:
- be careful with anything that could start a fire, and do not leave cooking unattended
- make sure smoke alarms work and everyone in the house or workplace knows the escape plan
- put off outdoor activities that create heat or sparks where possible
- if there is a fire, get out, stay out and call 111
Can the strikes be stopped?
Both sides say they want a settlement, but they disagree on how to get there.
On 6 November, FENZ applied to the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) to fix the terms of the collective agreement. Stiffler called it "a last-resort step", saying every reasonable avenue for a negotiated deal had been exhausted. FENZ says the union declined an offer of independent arbitration and did not put forward a best position when the ERA asked both sides to do so.
The union rejects that account. National secretary Wattie Watson told RNZ that "no-one trusts FENZ" to negotiate a fair agreement on its own, and that the strikes would be called off if the government put "the right people in the room" with access to funding.
On Sunday, Watson said the caretaker coalition could still act before 27 November. "It's not like we're expecting them to come and say 'we'll do this level of deal with you'. We're just wanting them to get the right people in the room," she told RNZ.
The union cancelled a one-hour strike that had been planned for election day, 7 November. It asked local members to focus on organising the 10-hour stoppage.
The first 10-hour strike falls on the same day the Electoral Commission expects to declare the official election result. Read our explainer on how New Zealand forms a government after a close election. For other summer fire rules, see where you can let off fireworks.
