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FBA bargaining to resume March 28

Health unions continue to be frustrated with B.C.’s health employers who are unable to engage in concrete negotiations for a new collective agreement for 43,000 health care workers.

Talks between the multi-union Facilities Bargaining Association (FBA) and the Health Employers Association of BC (HEABC) will resume March 28.

FBA spokesperson Bonnie Pearson, the secretary-business manager for the Hospital Employees’ Union, says that the union negotiating committee has gone home today despite talks scheduled for this week.

“Health employers are having a hard time participating in these talks, in our view, because they are being micromanaged by government at every turn,” says Pearson. “It became clear as a result of this internal approval process that they had little to nothing of substance to discuss.” 

“If we are to have a functional round of talks, health employers need to be empowered to bargain – or they need to bring the decision-makers to the table.”

So far, health employers have focused their contract demands on administrative and housekeeping issues although some of the changes they are seeking would severely limit workers’ ability to access additional work or take on new roles. They are also looking to substantially change parts of the grievance procedure and negatively impact members’ ability to enforce the collective agreement in a meaningful and timely way.

In contrast, the FBA has tabled language in a number of key areas including health and safety, equity, flexible schedules, overtime allocation, and on improvements to casual call-in procedures.

The collective agreement covers a diverse health care team that includes workers in hospitals, nursing homes and diagnostic treatment centres as well as emergency health services and shared services such as logistics and supply operations.

More than 270 occupations are represented in the talks including care aides, licensed practical nurses, pharmacy technicians, OR booking clerks, medical transcriptionists, trades and maintenance workers, sterile supply technicians, pathology attendants, ophthalmic techs, housekeepers and many others.

The current Facilities collective agreement expires March 31.

March 13, 2012, was the Second Hour of debate for Bill C-377 (a copy of the debate is below). The arguments made by the Opposition members against the Bill in the 2^nd hour were much stronger and more coherent than the last debate. They obviously received and understood the messaging they have been getting from the various unions. 

Second Reading is now over. The Bill will be voted on later this evening. We expect it will pass and be referred to the Standing Committee on Finance. If the Bill passes, do not think it is over.  A lot of Private Members’ Bills pass Second Reading but still get defeated. It is routine procedure to allow the Bill to have hearings in Committee. The Committee will begin hearings on this Bill later in the Spring. 

The key votes will be the Report Stage and 3^rd Reading which occur after the Bill goes through the Committee hearings. If the Bill passes through those vote it will become law.

Follow the link below for a copy of yesterday’s debate:

COPY OF THE DEBATE

Health employer “efficiencies” would limit job opportunities

B.C.’s health employers made it clear at the bargaining table this week that they want to limit employment mobility for regular employees and expand the use of casuals in the workplace.

Friday marked the fourth week of bargaining between the multi-union Facilities Bargaining Association (FBA) and the Health Employers Association of British Columbia (HEABC) for a new collective agreement covering 43,000 health care workers across B.C.

FBA spokesperson Bonnie Pearson says she is disappointed with the first volley of bargaining demands tabled by health employers under the guise of administrative efficiency.

“In a tough bargaining environment, it would be much more helpful if HEABC would support improvements in non-compensation areas of the contract such as work-life balance and employment mobility.” says Pearson, who is the secretary-business manager of the Hospital Employees’ Union.

“Instead, health employers have unleashed a laundry list of demands that restrict our members’ opportunities to earn enough money to stay in health care by making it harder – not easier – to access additional shifts and new opportunities for advancement.”

HEABC tabled a number of demands which would limit the ability of part-time workers to access additional hours of work, restrict full-time workers’ access to more family-friendly shifts and new work opportunities, and expand the use of casual workers.

HEABC also wants to change the way seniority is accumulated.

The FBA also tabled a number of proposals this past week including provisions that would provide better access to flexible schedules, allocate overtime hours by seniority, and improve the method by which casuals are called in for work.

The diverse bargaining unit includes more than 270 job classifications working in every area of health care including bedside and emergency care, lab and other diagnostic services, health records, trades, facility maintenance, food services, pharmacy and finance.

HEU represents about 85 per cent of health care workers covered by the talks. Another 14 per cent are represented by the Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 873, the B.C. Government and Service Employees’ Union and International Union of Operating Engineers Local 882/882H. Eight other unions represent one per cent of workers covered by the talks.

The current Facilities collective agreement expires March 31.

Bill C-377 is a Private Member’s Bill submitted in the House of Commons proposing amendments to the Income Tax  of Canada in respect to (all) Labour Organizations including Labour Councils and labour management associations, etc.  

On October 3, 2011, Bill C-317, an earlier version of Bill C-377, was introduced into the House of Commons by Russ Hiebert, a back-bench Conservative Member of Parliament from South Surrey-White Rock-Cloverdale (BC). On November 4, 2011, the Speaker of the House of Commons ruled that Bill C-317 had violated the rules of the House of Commons and ruled the piece of legislation out of order. However, the Speaker’s ruling did allow Mr. Hiebert to modify the Bill and table a new subsequent Bill within 20 days.  

Mr. Hiebert did restructure his Bill – hence the new Bill C-377. It still provides enormous reporting requirements which are in excess of those required by provincial laws.  This Bill will now punish Business Managers by fining them a $1000 per day penalty for any infraction to the legislation. This penalty can be devastating because it is cumulative and the failure to file can be inferred forma filing that is deemed to be incomplete, misleading or for the purposes of failure to comply to the Income Tax Act. 

The Bill has detrimental and unjustified impacts on Unions, on pension and benefit plans, which will compel the disclosure of personal information including personal health and medical information which conflicts with legislation already in place. It will duplicate existing financial disclosure applicable in our union constitutions and in legislation that is currently in place for trust funds set by provincial regulators. Because of the onerous disclosure requirements in this legislation, it will become a financial burden for many smaller unions to comply and will be very time consuming. 

This Bill is a Private Member’s Bill and has not yet been embraced by the Federal Conservative Government. If the Government allows for a “free vote”, Conservative Members will be allowed to vote however they wish. We, therefore, need to lobby as many Conservative members as possible to convince him that this Bill is a hindrance and a positive step forward. We fully support openness and transparency. We follow provincial regulations on supplying financial information and our members have access to our books. There is no need for this legislation. The Liberals and NDP are already on side and will vote against this Bill. We need to convince Conservatives that this bill is bad. 

The Bill has begun Second Reading and its second hour of debate will occur likely sometime next week. It will then be voted upon. If it is passed at Second Reading, it will be referred to Committee for public hearings. After those hearings are complete, the Bill will be voted upon again. This could happen as early as late spring or sometime next fall. `Either way it is important we start communicating our concerns to all Federal Elected Officials as soon as possible.

DEFEAT BILL C-377

The Building Trades have now launched a new website. This website will assist in our lobbying efforts.   

The Building Trades will also be organizing a “lobby day” in Ottawa to meet with Members of Parliament to convince them to vote against Bill C-377; the lobby day will be on May 15^th.   

Regarding the website, you will need to do a one-time registration which will allow you to send material to your local Member of Parliament. Please give it a look and try. How to use the web portal; it is simple get to the site, register and point and click, the rest is easy! 

 The address is www.workersbuildcanada.ca.  Log on and fill out the form. Please make sure you add in the name of your area Member of Parliament.  This takes only a minute; costs you nothing and will be extremely helpful in getting our message out to government.   

Call your MP now!  The lobby day in Ottawa in May is important but if you have an existing relationship with your MP – or even if you don’t – get in touch with them now! Let them know this Bill is bad for business and bad for the work we are trying to do to help the government get the economy back on track.  

Keep up the good work.  We have gotten organized in the month since this Bill was introduced.  Your time and attention is greatly appreciated.  We are all busy trying to keep our members working – and the economy moving – so none of us have time for this.  But we need to continue to make this a priority as it would be disastrous if passed – so keep going!

Please take a look at the link below for Myths and Facts regarding Bill C-377:

Myths and Facts – C-377

Ezra Levant hosts a show, The Source, for Canada’s Sun News. In a very well-researched presentation, he takes a comprehensive look at Obama’s decision over the Keystone Pipeline, and the alleged “pristine, environmentally sensitive area” through which the pipeline would pass.  Here’s the link for the video..

http://conservatives4palin.com/2012/01/video-canadian-talk-show-host-destroys-obama-over-keystone-decision.html

An interesting article, it appears that the Federal Government are preparing for a long fight with public service unions.  The Government has not hidden the fact that there will be numerous cuts in jobs within the Federal Government.  It may not specifically mentioned in the impending Federal Budget but they will come and the Budget will at least lay the framework of the impending cuts.  See the link below for the full story.

Treasury Board request for $16M to create new litigation unit worries unions as budget cuts loom

March 6, 2012

Please follow the link below as an online tool for you to find and post local rallies and events in your area to support BC’s Teachers.

If you don’t see the local event in your area listed, please post it.

http://www.standupforbc.com/calendar

After three weeks of negotiations, unions representing 43,000 health care workers are expressing frustration over health employers’ unwillingness to make any substantial progress at the bargaining table.

The multi-union Facilities Bargaining Association says that despite nine days of scheduled talks, representatives of the Health Employers Association of B.C. have spent less than ten hours in face-to-face discussions.

FBA spokesperson Bonnie Pearson says that the FBA bargaining committee is frustrated with the slow pace of talks.

This past week, two days were set aside to address issues specific to emergency health services which have been transferred into the health sector. Ambulance paramedics, dispatch personnel and related administrative staff are now included in the Facilities subsector negotiations.

But Pearson says that health employers did not identify any collective agreement changes that were necessary to operationalize the transfer of the ambulance service into the health sector.

The FBA is concerned that the transfer will be yet another employer excuse for further delays at the bargaining table.

There are a dozen unions in the FBA representing health care workers in hospitals, residential care facilities, emergency health services, shared services (like supply chain and logistics) and diagnostic and treatment centres.

FBA members include a wide range of direct patient care, emergency, support and administrative workers across more than 270 job classifications.

Talks continue on March 7.