100,000 on strike in New Zealand for better pay

WELLINGTON:

More than 100,000 New Zealand teachers, nurses, doctors, firefighters and support staff walked off the job on Thursday demanding more money and resources for the public sector in a sign of growing discontent with the country's centre-right government.

Public servants marched with placards and banners in towns across New Zealand, chanting and listening to speeches. However, protests in capital Wellington as well as Christchurch had to be cancelled because of dangerous weather conditions.

The unions in a joint statement last week billed the strike as the largest in decades with more than 100,000 public servants taking part. The government dismissed the protests as a "union-orchestrated political stunt", even as the demonstrations highlight growing public unease over its direction.

Middlemore Hospital emergency doctor and Association of Salaried Medical Specialists Vice President Sylvia Boys told a crowd at Aotea Square in Auckland the government had been elected on promises to reduce the cost of living but "the cost of living has worsened".