News & Updates

BL9980 Most HSA esential services levels in placeMediator Stephen Rinfret has booked out of mediation with the Facilities Health Services & Support Bargaining Association and Health Employers' Association of BC (HEABC).The Facilities Bargaining Association is awaiting a decision from the Labour Relations Board (LRB) on its application to have the LRB set interim (temporary) essential services levels. The LRB is...

NEARLY 15,000 community social services workers represented by 13 unions have ratified new collective agreements. Workers voted 66 percent to accept the new agreement in community living; 69 percent in general services. The two-year contracts provide for continuity of service for B.C.s most vulnerable citizens and protects workers jobs in exchange for about $40 million in cost containment and concessions...

PARAMEDICAL PROFESSIONAL BARGAINING ASSOCIATION Bargaining Update #6 PDF Version ( Adobe Acrobat required)Bargaining between the Paramedical Professional Bargaining Association and Health Employers Association of BC has been temporarily suspended.After several bargaining sessions that have allowed the parties to explore a number of issues, the two sides agreed to suspend bargaining due to industry-wide considerations.-It has become clear to the two...

To: HSA Chief Stewards Re: Agreement with HEABC re on-call and call-back provisions during a strikeHSA and the Paramedical Professional Bargaining Association reached agreement with HEABC last night at the Labour Relations Board, to resolve ongoing disputes regarding on-call and call-back pay during the provision of essential services. Resolution of these disputes was necessary in order to complete essential services...

The Report: April / May 2004 vol.25 num.2 argaining between the Paramedical Professional Bargaining Association and Health Employers Association of BC was temporarily suspended in April after several bargaining sessions that started in late February. -It became clear to the two sides bargaining committees that while negotiations had been frank and cordial, the uncertainty in the broader health care labour...

The Report: April / May 2004 vol.25 num.2 by HANS BROWN hat happens when you train only 135 people to fill 298 positions? You get one big shortage and one big headache. What is respiratory therapy? For most people, breathing is as easy and natural as blinking. But for thousands of Canadians, breathing is a struggle. They might be accident...

The Report: April / May 2004 vol.25 num.2 he recently-created Canadian Health Professionals Secretariat (CHPS) held a highly successful two-day meeting in Ottawa at the end of February to plot strategy for tackling the many challenges health professionals across the country are expected to face this year. During the meeting the Secretariat welcomed three new independent unions as members: the...

The Report: April / May 2004 vol.25 num.2 by CINDY STEWART recent article in the Globe and Mail (April 7, 2004) is one of the most articulate and succinct defences of our public medicare system I have seen in the mainstream media. Gordon Guyatt, a professor in health sciences at McMaster University in Ontario, takes up a few column inches...

The Report: April / May 2004 vol.25 num.2 by RON OHMART ith contract negotiations in the health care sector getting their fair share of media and public interest in the past few months, there has been an increased awareness and curiosity about HSA’s major collective agreement, the Paramedical Professional Bargaining Association contract with the Health Employers Association of BC. The...

The Report: April / May 2004 vol.25 num.2 by JACKIE SPAIN hen we are angry as workers about what is happening in BC in the health care system and our society in general, we have to remember that we were the architects of our own destiny. The province had a democratic vote for the government of choice. The people voted...