CLC backs HSA against BC government

December 20 2001 - Ken Georgetti, President of the Canadian Labour Congress supported complaints against the Government of British Columbia made by the Health Sciences Association of BC to the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) regarding legislation passed last summer to restrict health science professionals' collective bargaining rights and impose a two-tiered wage contract on the unions representing the 14,000 members.

"We view these two pieces of legislation as anti-union laws designed to impose the employer's bargaining position on the unions involved - a bargaining position that was arbitrary and that had an unfair and unequal impact on our members included in the bargaining unit," Georgetti says in a letter to Bill Jordan, General Secretary of the ICFTU.

HSA filed its complaint through its national organization, the National Union of Public and General Employees (NUPGE).

"Health science professionals had their collective bargaining rights stripped away last summer, and the government violated some fundamental principles in forcing the employers' bargaining position through heavy-handed legislation," said Jeanne Meyers, HSA's Executive Director of Legal Services.

"Premier Gordon Campbell has made it clear this was just the beginning of violating principles of free collective bargaining. As we brace for coming attacks on working people in British Columbia, it's important that we continue to let the international community know there is a case to be made against the anti-worker agenda this Liberal government is rolling out," Meyers said.

On December 6 2001, Health Sciences Association President Cindy Stewart called on Health Services Minister Colin Hansen to take a closer look at problems with flexibility in the health care system.

"The Minister of Health Services has said over and over again that inflexibility in the negotiated collective agreements is undermining the delivery of health care in BC.

"That really is an astounding comment from a representative of the government that imposed a collective agreement on 14,000 health science professionals. It's his own government's contract," Stewart said.

"We all want to improve the delivery of health care. The Liberal government made that job all the more difficult by cutting taxes to high income British Columbians before considering the longer-term impacts. If the minister goes down this road, the result of those tax cuts will be that British Columbians are going to pay with reduced services in health care," she said.

"I have written the minister asking for an urgent meeting to discuss the creative solutions to problems with health care delivery that the Health Sciences Association has negotiated with employers over the years to meet regional needs - all within the parameters of negotiated collective agreements," she said.

Stewart accused the minister of being short-sighted in blaming unions and contracts for problems in service delivery. She said that employers also have a responsibility for coming to the table prepared to work on creative solutions to address problems in the system.

"In those regions where the employers are prepared to work with each other and with employees, we have been able to improve service delivery without violating collective agreements."

"Contracts are a two-way proposition. It's time that the minister understood that success isn't in getting your own way, but finding solutions that get everyone working toward the same goal," Stewart said.