Mediated talks fail - Remarks by Cindy Stewart

Thank you for coming this morning.

First of all, I want to update you on the events that have taken place since June 20 when the Liberal government ordered health science professionals back to work after only five days of job action over four weeks.

I said at that time it was a difficult day for the union and for our members.

I didn't believe the legislated period would work. But I and the union's board of directors were prepared to do everything possible to make it work.

We returned to contract talks with the assistance of the government-appointed mediator prepared to negotiate. The employer didn't have the courtesy to do the same. And only after our members began meeting and considering some very serious options did HEABC send a message that they were prepared to move a little.

It was a small move, but a move nevertheless.

This week, we responded with a major proposal - moving from a wage demand of 27 per cent over two years to eight per cent in each of the coming three years.

The mediator tells us that the employer recognized this as a significant move. But while they have a legislated direction to bargain, they aren't bargaining anymore.

They say they don't have the money to bargain with.

And the government essentially said yesterday they won't give them the money.

When the Liberal government ordered an end to our June strike and a return to the bargaining table, they knew the solution was professional pay for professional work.

They set up this legislation knowing it would fail because they refuse to make a commitment to the most important element in the province's health care system - the people who care for British Columbians.

We've been at the table trying to achieve a contract through fair and free collective bargaining. The HEABC's actions since June 20 have made it clear to us they don't have the same commitment.
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We have been left with no choice but to make it clear that our members don't accept a wage offer that singles out some professionals for higher wage increases over others.

What the employer has brought to the table is a wage offer designed to divide our union. Our members have told us this is fundamentally unacceptable.

They know what the employer is trying to do. And they're not going to accept that kind of obviously divisive tactic without a response.

The offer on the table doesn't address shortages.

It means that this summer, and in the summers to come, residents in many communities won't be able to go to their local hospital for mammograms, ultrasounds and CT-scans. That happened last summer and it's happening at Trail Regional Hospital this month because there simply isn't enough staff to provide services beyond emergency services.

The offer means that children will have to continue to wait up to two years to see a speech and language pathologist - which can have the devastating result of missing the critical therapy window.

It means that respiratory therapists who already operate their departments on overtime aren't going to see new people coming in to help them

It means that radiation therapists in the province's cancer clinics will continue to struggle and struggle even more than they do today to keep sufficient staff to provide those services.

This offer means that reduced pharmacy hours at hospitals in the Interior and throughout the province will continue and worsen. Because there's nothing in this wage offer that keeps pharmacists here when they know they can go down the street or across the border for wages 10 to 15 dollars an hour more than they get paid in a hospital.

People are saying that this offer is the government's way of serving notice on teachers, health care workers and other public sector workers that the war is on in British Columbia. That business interests have moved in and the rest of us will suffer the consequences.

That may well be the government's agenda.

I have a different agenda.

I'm here to get a fair collective agreement that values the contribution of health science professionals to our health care system.

I have a mandate from my members. In the spring, they voted 90 per cent in favour of striking to back their demands for significant wage increases.

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The government thinks it took away that mandate on June 20. And, maybe, on paper, it did.

But it didn't take the spirit of that mandate away.

Effective Monday, July 23 at 6 a.m. HSA members in all health facilities in BC where HSA members provide services will withdraw their services.

We will have essential service levels in place to ensure the health and safety of British Columbians are not at stake. We have given the employer ample notice to prepare the system for that withdrawal of service.

I want to say in the strongest possible terms that our objective here is to get a fair collective agreement for health science professionals.

We are prepared to go back to the table at any time to negotiate an agreement. But we need something to work with.

Thank you.

For more information, contact:
Miriam Sobrino, Director of Communications
(604)439-0994 or 328-2886