The following article appeared in the April 2009 issue of The Report.

by DAN KEETON

On May 23, 1996, delegates to HSA’s 25th convention had a lot to talk about. The previous year had seen a tumultuous revamp of health care delivery with the establishment of regional health boards, new bargaining associations that linked various unions in health care at several tables, negotiations for a provincial agreement, a strike vote, and a provincial election.

Delegates discussed a campaign to oppose downsizing at the Canadian Red Cross that threatened to cut positions and open the door to privatization of Canada’s blood service. At convention, HSA’s then-executive co-director Lisa Hansen predicted: “we will continue to need the assistance of a third party in future rounds of bargaining… we will continue to see unrealistic bargaining expectations [from the Health Employers’ Association of BC] which include major concessions demands.”

On June 8 of that year, health minister Penny Priddy enacted Bill 21 over the objections of the Health Employers’ Association, codifying in law the recommendations for a master agreement by mediator Vince Ready.

It furthered the work of the 1993 Health Labour Accord governing the massive province-wide restructuring and covered provincial agreements for more than 75,000 health care workers in acute care and community-based facilities.

Hansen said the legislation didn’t reflect everything HSA had sought but it protected gains made in 1993 regarding job security – and didn’t include the employers’ concessions. “There is a general recognition,” said Hansen, “that the people who work in the system have a right to expect fair conditions and respect as care providers.”

HSA started out in 1971 as an association of health care professionals who banded together when it became apparent they’d have to fight as a group to get respect from employers. For the first four years the union maintained a no-strike clause in its constitution. However, in 1975, frustrated by the employers’ refusal to bargain respectfully, members voted to change the constitution to allow for the right to strike.

Over the years, HSA gradually increased its influence. And the union truly became an activist one when members voted to make the position of president a full-time job, according to current HSA president Reid Johnson.

“The watershed moment in terms of HSA being more of an activist union and less passive was really in 1997 when Cindy Stewart went from being a part-time president to a full-time president,” Johnson said.

“It brought the members’ perspective to the day-to-day administration of the union but it also allowed more time and effort for the president to build relationships in the broader labour movement, to be more active in social advocacy, in policy development and the small-p political side of influencing decision-makers.”

The result was that from 1997 on, more members began to realize they could have an effect on the policies governing their working lives, such as health, social services and budgetary policies. Being full-time allowed HSA’s president to become a labour leader in the broader sense, with involvement in the BC Federation of Labour and on a national level through the National Union for Provincial and General Employees (NUPGE), as well as the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC).

HSA increased its lobbying efforts and let the government know it wanted a greater role in discussions on the direction of health care and community social services.

“The members saw that the world around them was changing – and they asked the president and the board to make more inroads into the political sphere,” Johnson said.

“I remember the first time we bought a table at an event for [then Health Minister] Penny Priddy. There was a lot of discussion about how appropriate that was for HSA.” But it was a very effective meeting, Johnson recalled, with the minister coming to understand HSA’s issues and signalling HSA’s new role advocating for its members in the political arena.

An increasing number of members joined in local activities, becoming delegates to labour councils and lobbying local politicians and health boards.

“We started putting more resources into occupational health and safety and engaging in more advocacy,” including greater emphasis on workers’ compensation claims, Johnson said.

The pace of the activities reflects the union’s growth in numbers over the years, mirroring the expansion of the public health sector – despite government cutbacks – and new members choosing to join HSA.

“We’ve also become more active with the professional associations our members belong to,” says Johnson. “It’s in our constitution that we seek to build relationships with those associations. More and more we’re trying to find ways to work together on common issues.”

In its 25th year, HSA also became involved with the BC-Yukon Branch of the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation’s Run for the Cure, the annual national fundraising event to support research to eliminate breast cancer.

It only makes sense, as then Region 8 director Maureen Ross wrote in the November/December 1998 issue of The Report: “85 per cent of our members are women. One in nine women is diagnosed with breast cancer, and breast cancer also strikes two per cent of men.

“Often it is HSA mammographers who make the first diagnosis; it is sonographers who assist with the biopsy that goes to the cytotechnologist who reads the slide.

“After the diagnosis it is HSA radiation therapists and pharmacists who plan radiation and chemotherapy treatment, HSA physiotherapists and occupational therapists who aid in the physical recovery of the patient, and HSA social workers and psychologists who counsel the patients,” she noted.

In 1997 HSA become an official sponsor of the event and that relationship has continued and grown. Today, Johnson is a member of the Foundation’s Task Force 2020, which has that year as the target to ending the life-limiting effects of breast cancer. He chairs a working group on the healthcare workforce. HSA is also involved with Telus Tour for the Cure, which has brought tremendous profile about the work of HSA members in the breast cancer journey.

While HSA continued to build its profile as a health care advocate, the union continued to advocate for members.

In 1998, nine months of frustrating negotiations and a strike led to the appointment of mediator Brian Foley. His subsequent report formed the basis for a 1999 collective agreement accepted by 94 per cent of health science professionals represented by HSA. While adhering to the government’s “zero, zero and two per cent” formula, the contract defended the classifications system against employer-demanded concessions, improved language governing work hours and assignments, improved seniority portability, provided money and improvements to Long Term Disability and extended care, and applied all provisions of the agreement to the members in community services.

That year HSA held the first bargaining proposal meeting of the community and social services employees in early May. Members sought to narrow the wide gulf between wages paid in that sector and those for similar or equivalent jobs in the health care sector. HSA declared that a key objective in bargaining was “levelling” the wage gap, following on repeated promises by the provincial government to address the inequity.

Members in the social services sector had to strike for 11 weeks in their pursuit of that goal. By late May 1999, they reached an agreement that, in the words of HSA negotiator Julio Trujillo, was historic because it would remove the wage divide. The BC Liberal government would subsequently tear up this agreement, leading to anger and disappointment across the sector.

Johnson can testify to the wage gap. He saw his pay increase by 30 per cent after moving from a social work job in the community to one in a local hospital, doing essentially the same work. “Social services has been the poor sister for a long time. We’ve got hundreds of members in the sector who are woefully underpaid. The system is grossly underfunded. We’re making some headway, but it’s slow.”

With a tradition of trade unionism growing, HSA members were increasing their expectations of how they could make a difference in and through their union.

Next page (1999-2009: A proud history of caring)