Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Union waits for LRB vote ruling

By Dan Hilborn
Published Dec. 10, 2003


The Hospital Employees' Union is anxiously waiting to learn the results of a union certification vote taken last May that could see newly privatized employees at the Normanna care home join their union. The Labour Relations Board has yet to release its decision on the vote.

Stephen Howard, communications director for the HEU, said if the vote is successful, the east Burnaby care home would be the second long-term care centre in British Columbia to recertify after the original union members were fired under the terms of Bill 29.

The support staff are employees of the British-based Compass Group, one of the largest food service companies in the world, with annual revenues in excess of $22 billion.

"In April, they fired 38 HEU members and hired Compass, who brought in a new staff of 24 people," Howard said this week. "They have fewer workers making significantly reduced wages, and so we immediately began to organize."

Last month, recently privatized workers at the Beacon Hill Villa in Victoria unanimously voted for HEU as their union of choice after they were hired by the Compass Group to take over support services at that facility.

The Victoria case was also the first instance where another union - IWA, local 3-567 - had signed a 'partnership agreement' with Compass in an attempt to represent the new workers.

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