Health Sciences Association opens 41st annual convention

Members of the Health Sciences Association, the union delivering modern health care that represents health sciences professionals who deliver diagnosis, treatment and recovery in BCs hospitals and communities, is meeting this weekend at its 41st annual convention in Vancouver.

Over the course of the next two days members will be debating a number of resolutions as the union adds to and enhances the agenda it has built over the past four decades.

-While those debates will be about the mechanics of how we govern ourselves, or about specific issues important to us at this moment in time, or about fundamental principles that define who we are and what we believe in as a union," HSA President Reid Johnson said, -we are at a time in our history, I believe, where we are on the doorstep of enormous change. Enormous change that will not happen overnight ... not just here in BC, not just on a national scale, but monumental change that will influence the way forward in our world.

-Im talking about the society we choose to build. The society we choose to live in," he said. Delegates will debate a number of resolutions, including whether to move to a biennial convention, instead of annual conventions. Other resolutions focus on ensuring the union continues to grow the public profile of its members, and highlights issues important to the members working in health care and social services in British Columbian.

Delegates will welcome keynote speaker, Adrian Dix, Leader of the Official Opposition, and other guest speakers Larry Brown, Secretary Treasure of the National Union of Public and General Employees, Jim Sinclair, President of the BC Federation of Labour, and Amber Hockin, Pacific Region Director of the Canadian Labour Congress.