News & Updates

HSA REPORT, DECEMBER 2014 By David Durning, HSA Senior OHS Officer Over the years, Canadian workers have fought for and gained important workplace health and safety rights. The diligent exercise of these rights is proven to be the most effective way of ensuring workplace hazards are controlled. These rights, enshrined in legislation and regulation, are: the right to know about...

Delegates to the 56th convention of the BC Federation of Labour have elected Irene Lanzinger as President. She is the first woman to ever hold the position. Lanzinger was the Federation's secretary-treasurer for the past four years and is a past president of the BC Teachers' Federation. She is a high school math and science teacher in Vancouver. Aaron Ekman...

Effective December 1, British Columbia will be in flu season, and HSA members who work in patient care areas in hospitals (ie, where patients are or are likely to be present) are reminded to be vaccinated against influenza or, alternatively, wear a protective mask during flu season. As in previous years, health care workers who work in patient care areas...

HSA REPORT, DECEMBER 2014 Nu Lu was frustrated. As a physiotherapist at Vancouver General Hospital, she needed to get her patients up and moving. The rehabilitation she and her fellow physios provide is important – if it didn't get done, the patients didn't get to go home. But many of them were on short oxygen lines attached to the wall...

HSA REPORT, DECEMBER 2014 Professional recognition days, weeks and months come and go. Posters go up on bulletin boards, posts go up on social media sites. Maybe there’s cupcakes. It’s a great chance to educate and celebrate the work that makes our health care and community social service systems work, but it’s getting harder to break through the noise and...

HSA REPORT, DECEMBER 2014 By Val Avery, President HSA's first office was a little place on Kingsway. As the number of members grew steadily, so did the need to find new space. We soon moved to an office on Hastings at Boundary, staying there until 1994, when we moved to Metrotown. Only a few years later, in 1998, we moved...

HSA members are encouraged to take advantage of 3 opportunities to hear Dr. Danielle Martin speak in Vancouver this week. Dr. Martin helped launch Canadian Doctors for Medicare, and last spring defended Canada's health care system before a US Senate Committee. She holds several medical and academic positions, and is an in-demand speaker on the future of health care in...

HSA REPORT, DECEMBER 2014 By Laura Busheikin There's no doubt that having to take time off work due to an injury or illness brings a multitude of challenges. Aside from the medical demands, there are forms to fill out and anxiety around getting the proper benefits. There are often feelings of isolation. There is the uncertainty of not knowing when...

HSA REPORT, DECEMBER 2014 By Carol Riviere, Communications Deep ties to her community and long-time union activism helped HSA vice-president Janice Morrison secure a spot on Nelson city council in the recent municipal election. "My family have lived here since the 1920's, and I've served my community in many different ways in the 25 years I've called Nelson home," says...

HSA REPORT, DECEMBER 2014 by Dennis Blatchford, Pensions and Benefits Advocate I'm advised by Pacific Blue Cross that fertility drugs are not covered under the new 50 per cent cost share arrangement for non-PharmaCare formulary medications. Why are these drugs not covered? The agreement on the 50/50 cost share on non-PharmaCare formulary medications did not sweep in classes of drugs...