Hard feelings remain, says HEU

By Dan Hilborn
Published May 5, 2004


The provincial government may have averted a B.C.-wide general strike this week, but hard feelings and anger still remain in B.C.'s health-care system.

But while many union members are still unhappy, Mike Old of the Hospital Employees' Union is calling a memorandum of understanding reached with the province on Sunday night the best deal the union could win.

"Let's be clear, there's nothing nice about the situation health-care workers find themselves in this week," Old said as a small crowd of angry union members gathered outside the union headquarters in Burnaby on Monday afternoon.

His comment comes after what may be remembered as one of the most tumultuous weeks in B.C. politics in the past 20 years. The possibility of a general strike started to come to fruition after the provincial government called an emergency session of the legislature on Thursday night to force the striking HEU members back to work.

The legislation, known as Bill 37, galvanized anti-government protesters when it allowed for no limits on the contracting out of union work and demanded a 15 per cent wage rollback, retroactive to April 1.

But a memorandum of understanding reached on Sunday night between the HEU, B.C. Federation of Labour and the province withdrew the most contentious provision of Bill 37. The agreement provided a $25- million severance package for fired workers, capped further contracting out at 600 jobs, withdrew the planned clawback of wages, and offered no recrimination for union members who returned to work on Monday.

"It's far from perfect, but it limits some of the worst aspects of Bill 37 and it puts a hard cap on contracting out," HEU secretary- business manager Chris Allnutt said on a Monday morning press release announcing the end of official job action.

Union spokesperson Margi Blamey said she can empathize with the still angry health-care workers.

"Nobody is happy about this memorandum. And let's be clear, this is not a deal - this was something that was imposed on us. It's not a contract that members get to vote on. It's a memorandum outside of a collective agreement and it's still the result of a government that does not know how to collective bargain, and has yet to reach a negotiated settlement with any union in the health-care sector.

"Now the government has to go into negotiations with the B.C. Nurses' Union and the Health Sciences Association in a climate that is more poisoned than it was before."

Helen Carkner, spokesperson for the Fraser Health Authority, said it probably won't take too long for the region to return to work as normal.

"We're figuring tomorrow (Wednesday) is the day we're back to normal," Carkner said Tuesday morning as the Burnaby Now went to press. "But people are pretty much back on the job."

She noted that a larger than usual number of employees called in sick on Monday morning, but that was not surprising considering the rather tumultuous events of the weekend.

"There is no discipline planned for our employees," Carkner said.

During the dispute, which lasted from April 26 to May 3, Burnaby Hospital had to cancel 25 inpatient surgeries, 103 day care visits, 92 CT scans, 266 ultrasound exams and 97 other diagnostic procedures. Another 337 ambulatory day visits were also cancelled.

Region-wide, roughly 1,200 surgeries, 4,000 diagnostic procedures and 10,000 lab tests per day were cancelled, Carkner said.