A Nation Under Pressure: What This Week’s Mega-Strike Could Teach Us About Trust

When the country pauses this Thursday, let’s use the day to listen — not just protest

This Thursday, New Zealand will pause.  More than 100,000 public-sector workers - teachers, nurses, midwives, allied-health professionals, support staff - are expected to walk off the job in what’s being called a “mega-strike”, one of the largest in our recent history.

Hospitals will scale back to essential services. Schools will close. Parents, patients and employers will scramble to adjust.

It’s easy to see this as one more battle line in an already divided landscape. The commentary has been heated: “Showdown,” “crisis,” “walkout of the decade.” But beneath the slogans lies something quieter - a country under pressure. People are tired. Systems are stretched. Everyone is trying to be heard.

I’ve spent much of my professional life in rooms where conflict sits heavy - boardrooms, courtrooms, classrooms. The lesson is the same every time: when pressure rises, listening must rise with it. Otherwise, mistrust fills the silence.

This Thursday’s strike isn’t just about pay packets or contracts. It’s a signal. Workers are saying that the strain has become unsustainable. Teachers speak of classrooms too large and resources too thin. Nurses talk of rosters that no longer feel safe. Meanwhile, agencies and employers are trying to hold budgets that no longer stretch far enough.

These truths can exist at once. Acknowledging both doesn’t weaken anyone’s position.  It strengthens our collective credibility.  So what do we do now?  This week.  Not someday.  How do we make Thursday more than a day off or a day lost?  These are my thoughts:

1. Recognise the dual strain

 

The stress isn’t one-sided. Staff shortages, inflation, and service demands are real. But so too are fiscal limits and the difficulty of sustaining public systems in a tight economy. Owning both pressures is the only true start.

2. Use the strike as a listening day

 

If schools are closed and wards are short-staffed, the country will already be pausing. Let’s not waste the pause.  Each of us can talk to teachers, nurses, parents, patients to ask what’s really driving the frustration. Don’t rush to defend or debate. Just listen. The most useful conversations might happen far from the microphones.  At the very least, someone might just feel heard.

3. Re-frame the mission

 

The story right now is “workers versus employers.” But the real mission is shared: how do we keep our public services safe, fair, and sustainable?  When we talk about the mission instead of the sides, the conversation changes shape. It becomes about solving, not scoring.

4. Start small and local

 

National bargaining takes time. But local steps can start now - community forums between parents and teachers, hospital working groups on staffing, public dashboards showing pressures and progress.  Micro-solutions can help to rebuild trust faster than grand statements.

5. Lead with steady presence

 

Noise will rise this week. Tempers may, too. The middle - the quiet majority of us New Zealanders - can help simply by staying composed, kind, and engaged. Connection is built in the follow-up, not the flashpoint.

When Thursday comes, there will be frustration on all sides. But there will also be a rare moment of collective attention.  The country, however briefly, will be focused on the same issue. What we do with that focus will matter far more than who is seen to win.

If we meet this week with empathy instead of outrage, curiosity instead of certainty, and steadiness instead of scorn, then perhaps the day after the strike won’t just mark disruption. It might mark a quiet beginning.  Even a  step back toward trust.  Because the measure of a nation isn’t whether it avoids conflict. It’s how it behaves in the middle of it.  And maybe, just maybe, this Thursday is our chance to remember that.