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Ministers are blasting Thursday’s mega strike as being ‘politically motivated’ by the unions - but what exactly do they mean by that? Are all 100,000 people striking raging lefties? Is Labour pulling the strings? Or are ministers playing politics themselves? Lloyd Burr tries to find some answers.

It’s been the Government’s line all week, that Thursday’s mega strike is “politically motivated”.

Public Service Minister Judith Collins got the ball rolling with the claim in an open letter on Sunday, where she wrote “the strike appears to be politically motivated by the unions”.

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon repeated it over and over on Monday at his weekly post-Cabinet press conference.

“It’s incredibly politically motivated by the unions, let’s be clear about it,” he said.

“I think it’s deeply politically motivated, I honestly do,” he said again. “I appreciate the unions are very close with Labour, I get it, they don’t like our government, I get it, but actually they’re not serving their members well.”

“A lot of political motivation from unions,” Luxon said again.

“The unions are politically motivated,” he said yet again.

Health Minister Simeon Brown was wheeling it out too.

“It is politically motivated,” he said on his way into Parliament on Wednesday.

But what exactly does that mean? In what way are the five unions whose members have voted to go on strike “politically motivated”?

It’s hard to find an actual answer to that question.

Was Luxon accusing all the striking doctors, nurses, teachers and other public servants of being raging lefties? “No, I’m saying we deeply value them and really appreciate the work they’re doing,” was his response.

Collins’ reasoning was that the Post Primary Teachers' Association’s “number one item on their agenda for a meeting with Education Minister Erica Stanford was Palestine”. She omitted to say that the topic of collective bargaining wasn’t allowed on said agenda.

Brown’s reasoning was that “they’re all operating their strikes on exactly the same day, trying to maximise disruption”.

Which unions are striking?

Five unions are striking:

– NZEI - NZ Educational Institute: Union for primary school teachers/workers (40,000 strikers);

– PPTA - Post-Primary Teachers’ Association: Union for secondary school teachers/workers (21,000 strikers);

– NZNO - NZ Nurses’ Organisation. Union for nurses (36,000 strikers);

– ASMS - Association of Salaried Medical Specialists. Union for doctors and dentists (4000 strikers);

– PSA - Public Service Association. Union for public servants (18,000 strikers).

What do the unions say about the ‘political motivation’ allegation?

Let’s go through each of the striking unions’ responses to the Government’s claim the action is “politically motivated”.

1. NZEI

President Ripeka Lessels says this is the motivation of the "overwhelming majority” of its members to strike:

“They're motivated to ask for a better pay offer because, like so many others, their power bills and grocery bills keep going up, and they've seen their colleagues leave for Australia.

“These educators understand that it's not good enough that we train up incredible teachers for Australia.”

Changes to the rules around pay equity claims have not helped, Lessels says.

It’s also worth noting that NZEI’s national secretary is Stephanie Mills, and while she’s not affiliated with a particular party, she did work for Greenpeace for 13 years.

2. PPTA

President Chris Abercrombie says because his union is negotiating with the Government, the environment is inherently political, regardless of which party is in power.

“I would point out that PPTA members have taken strike action on many occasions when Labour and Labour-led governments have been in power,” he says.

“Issues such as the secondary teacher shortage and the unmet need of students in secondary classrooms are well known by the Government. We are trying, through our collective agreement claims, to get these issues addressed.

“Addressing them is largely a political act. Equally, our strike action, which is in response to the Government's refusal to address these issues, can be regarded as a political act,” Abercrombie says.

3. NZNO

Bargaining spokesperson Debbie Handisides says it’s on the Government to explain why the strike action is “politically motivated”.

“They actually are our employer. That's where the purse strings sit,” she says. “Assuming that 36,000 New Zealanders [the number of striking members] vote for Labour - where's data to prove that?

“We've met with them 35 times. And every time we've been at the table, we've talked about the same thing: safe staffing. And to be having to fight for safe staffing is actually a health and safety issue. It’s absolutely so frustrating,” Handisides says.

Having the “politically motivated” label slapped on her by those in the very Government she’s negotiating with isn’t going down well with NZNO members, she says.

“It is pretty insulting. And it's frustrating, very frustrating. We keep going back to the fact they are refusing to listen, and they're totally not being realistic in refusing to understand what's happening on the hospital floor.”

For the sake of transparency, NZNO’s press officer Danya Levy worked for Labour’s press team in the 2010s and also the Ministry of Health from 2021-2024 which included time under the current coalition government.

4. ASMS

Executive director Sarah Dalton rejects the claim that her union and its members are “politically motivated”.

“ASMS is not party political, but we're absolutely health political, and that's clearly stated in our constitution. Our constitution requires us to advocate for the best public health system we can in New Zealand,” she says.

“We're not affiliated to any political party. And part of my work and my role, I lobby politicians from across the political spectrum, and that’s one small aspect of the work that we do,” Dalton says.

She’s not insulted by the name calling, but says she wishes the Government would negotiate in good faith.

“It's disappointing that they can't take a more mature approach to what might really help fix this. We have not had decent engagement from Health NZ or governments since I’ve been in this particular job since 2020, in the first round of bargaining I was overseeing.”

5. PSA

It’s worth pointing out that the PSA’s national secretary Fleur Fitzsimons ran for the Labour Party in 2023 as the candidate for the Rongotai electorate - but was unsuccessful.

In a statement, she told Stuff her members are not striking because of politics, but because of issues.

“They're striking because a healthcare assistant can't pay their rent, because there's no one to replace them when they're sick, because they're watching patients suffer due to understaffing. These are workplace issues, not political games,” she says.

“Ministers should stop the blame game and take responsibility. They set the funding, they control the budgets, they created these conditions. Workers are simply responding to the Government's political choices to underfund essential services,” she says.

An earlier version of this story said the Council of Trade Unions was an official affiliate of the Labour Party which was incorrect. We have updated this story to remove this paragraph. The unions officially affiliated with Labour include E tū and the NZ Dairy Workers’ Union which are both members of the CTU.