NBA opens talks with firm demands on safety and respect

The Nurses’ Bargaining Association (NBA) bargaining committee opened negotiations with health employers in Victoria October 21-22 with a grim warning: failure to invest in retention and recruitment to meet negotiated minimum nurse-to-patient ratios strategies will put patients’ lives at risk.

NBA negotiators, including HSA RPN Nicole McIntosh, elected member representative on the committee, and Colette Barker, HSA staff lead on negotiations, delivered a hard hitting bargaining opening presentation. While the employer’s opening remarks emphasized fiscal restraint, the committee responded with evidence showing that every additional patient added to nurses’ workload above ratio leads to a seven percent increase in preventable deaths. Unsafe workloads remain the top reason nurses are considering leaving the profession, with BC at risk of losing 12,000 nurses in the next two years.

The committee also pushed back on outdated wage structures and highlighted the gender pay gap: while male-dominated professions and trades reach the top of their pay scales in two to four years, it takes nurses in BC ten years to reach the highest level of pay.

Employers were challenged on their spending priorities as more than $280 million was spent in the past year on private, for-profit nursing agencies. That figure, which represents a 3,100 percent increase in health employer spending since 2018, could and should be invested in our public health care system.

Benefits are essential
 
NBA negotiators also spoke to the intense physical and emotional demands of nursing – working short-staffed, bearing witness to human suffering, and struggling with moral injury while trying to deliver care. Benefits – as a means for front line nurses to take care of themselves so they can care for others – have been identified by members as a top priority for this round of negotiations.
 
Member survey closes Monday
 
Members have made it clear: benefits are the top priority. Now, the NBA provincial bargaining committee is seeking more detailed feedback to ensure their proposals reflect your real needs and experiences related to your benefits. Share your thoughts in the link provided via email before the survey closes Monday at 4:00 pm.

Next steps

Negotiations will continue next week in Vancouver, with dates booked into December. As we continue the fight for a fair contract, your NBA bargaining committee will keep bringing nurses’ voices to the table and relentlessly pursue a collective agreement that restores safety and dignity to the nursing profession.

The committee commends members for showing up, speaking out, and banding together throughout this process.  Members are demonstrating that they are the most engaged unionized nurses in the country – and that motivation shows at the bargaining table. Without all members taking action, there is no power. Your voice, together with your colleagues, can force change.

Make sure to update your contact information so that you don’t miss any news from bargaining.