News & Updates

HSA REPORT MAGAZINE, JUNE 2015 BY CAROL RIVIERE The upcoming federal election is an opportunity for all of us to take a stand on issues that matter. Issues like child care, good jobs, retirement security, and health care matter to Canadians, and in this election voters have a chance to make a better choice. For the very young and their...

HSA REPORT MAGAZINE, JUNE 2015 BY LAURA BUSHEIKIN Stasia Hasumi, a Crisis Intervention Support Worker at the Comox Valley Transition Society, has plenty of high-stress moments at work. As a front-line worker at a 12-bed transition house for women and children, she needs to respond moment-by-moment to the needs of women facing danger, trauma and severely disrupted lives. "We have...

HSA REPORT MAGAZINE, JUNE 2015 HSA member David Bland was a vocational counsellor who worked at Richmond Mental Health Services. At the end of an otherwise ordinary work day in January of 2005, as David left his workplace, a former client was waiting in the parking lot – and fatally stabbed David. To honour his memory, the union established the...

HSA REPORT MAGAZINE, JUNE 2015 Acknowleding the diversity of HSA members and the issues they care about, HSA President Val Avery opened the convention with a report on how the board of directors, committees and activists must daily strive to balance demands and goals. "We represent a hundred different professions," said Avery. "But those differences don't divide us – they...

With the assistance of mediator Vince Ready, CUPE 873-03 and SN Transport have agreed to terms for a tentative agreement. Details of the first collective agreement for the local, reached last night after one session of mediated talks that began yesterday, will be disclosed to members at a ratification meeting scheduled for Tuesday (June 16). "I want to thank the...

Following the successful launch of the pilot project in April, the Enhanced Disability Management Program for affiliate employers is expanding once again. EDMP, which is already supporting thousands of HSA members working in health authorities, has a proven track record of helping members who are absent from work due either to a work-related or non-work related illness or injury, or...

"It is only through action that our nation will be able to truly move beyond this shame." — James Clancy, NUPGE National President On behalf of the 360,000 members of the National Union of Public and General Employees (NUPGE), James Clancy, National President, has issued a statement on the findings contained in the Truth and Reconciliation Report released on June...

HSA members are invited to attend one of five free, hands-on election workshops taking place between June 24-30 on the north half of Vancouver Island and upper Sunshine Coast. These workshops are part of HEU’s ongoing efforts over the past 18 months to develop support for public health care in this region. They are open to union members and the...

VANCOUVER – CUPE 873-03 served 72-hour strike notice to SN Transport yesterday after attempts to reach a first collective agreement failed. The union represents 115 workers who provide patient transfer services in the Lower Mainland. “From the moment this group of workers joined CUPE and we started bargaining their first agreement, the employer has resisted and used foot dragging tactics,”...

In February, Provincial Health Services Authority served Section 54 notice informing the Health Sciences Professional Bargaining Association that it intended to introduce a change to Lower Mainland pathology and laboratory services. This change would affect the terms, conditions or security of employment of a significant number of health science professional bargaining unit employees. Over the past four months HSPBA and...