Issues, Campaigns and Government Relations
Following a consultation process that can only be described as a sham, BC Health Minister Margaret MacDiarmid – on the day before the current government dissolves – announced today the enactment of legislation that dramatically changes the structure of collective bargaining in health care, HSA President Reid Johnson said today. “On her last day on the job, Health Minister Margaret...
THE REPORT: APRIL 2013 Medical Laboratory technologists at (PHSA) Whistler Health Care Centre joined HSA on February 27. The employees approached HSA about becoming members of the union and the decision to join was unanimous. This new chapter is a first – no other employees of Whistler Health Care Centre are unionized. "The Whistler Health Care Centre laboratory has evolved...
Health Minister Margaret MacDiarmid on Monday announced that new nursing legislation had been signed into law, bringing licensed practical nurses under the same bargaining structure as the B.C. Nurses’ Union. The legislation – Bill 18, the Health Authorities Amendment Act – passed last month over the objections of the Hospital Employees’ Union, which called the legislation a last-minute change prepared...
THE REPORT: APRIL 2013 BY REID JOHNSON PRESIDENT, HSA As The Report magazine went to press, our community social service members were just voting on their tentative agreement. But for most members, another hard round of bargaining has come to an end. I'm proud of the new agreements. Are they perfect? No. But in this bargaining climate, with the government...
THE REPORT: APRIL 2013 "I simply can't contemplate another four years of cutbacks and the impact that would have on my community," says Region 1 Director Anne Davis. Davis is one of several HSA members receiving support from HSA's political action fund to work full-time on a provincial election campaign. "I'm helping to elect Kassandra Dycke in Comox Valley. I...
HSA members are urged to vote in the provincial election. The outcome of this election will have a profound effect on the health care and community services our members provide, as well as other public services that our families, friends and communities rely on. Eligible voters may vote on the general voting day: May 14, 2013. Right to time off...
The International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, celebrated every year on March 21, was established to commemorate the day in 1960 when police opened fire and killed 69 people at a peaceful demonstration against the apartheid "pass laws" in Sharpeville, South Africa. Proclaiming the Day in 1966, the United Nations General Assembly called on the international community to...
The National Union of Public and General Employees (NUPGE) is concerned that the federal government is missing an opportunity to respond to Canada's underlying economic problems by continuing its hands-off, short-term approach in its 2013 budget released today. See full story at the NUPGE website here.
Vancouver Sun By: Darryl Walker, Barry O'Neill and Bonnie Pearson And Reid Johnson Every day throughout British Columbia, some of our most vulnerable citizens need assistance with basic life issues - women and children fleeing domestic violence; immigrants and refugees looking for jobs or coping with language and settlement issues; people with disabilities who need help with speech, occupational or...
The B.C. Liberal government began debate last week on Bill 18, legislation that fundamentally alters bargaining in the health sector. In a brief opening to the debate in the B.C. legislature, health minister Margaret MacDiarmid claimed the legislation was in line with last year’s raid by the BC Nurses’ Union on Licenced Practical Nurses represented by HEU and other unions...