HSA has contracted with Viewpoints Research to conduct a survey of HSA members covered by the Health Science Professionals Bargaining Association collective agreement about issues related to upcoming contract negotiations.

Your feedback is important and valuable to your bargaining committee.
If you are contacted by Viewpoints Research in the coming weeks, you are encouraged to participate in the telephone survey, which will take approximately 20 minutes to complete.

In the last round of HSPBA collective bargaining, the HSPBA and HEABC agreed to a memorandum to allow consolidation of seniority lists across all health authorities.
 

The 2010-2012 HSPBA collective agreement includes a Letter of Agreement ... Re: Professional Development Fund ... which provides for a $450,000 Professional Development Fund for use by all HSPBA members, including members represented by unions other than HSA, over the term of the collective agreement.

The amount available to HSA members covered by the HSPBA contract is approximately $450,000, which includes HSAs portion of this fund plus Bill 29 funds that were approved but never claimed.

HSA President Reid Johnson is not optimistic about media reports for a -new government mandate" for collective bargaining in 2012 after yesterdays Throne Speech from the BC government.

At the end of August, the Interior Health Authority revealed it planned to implement a major reorganization of laboratory services in the region.

The plans will be shared with IHA staff over the next two weeks at meetings where laboratory managers will introduce staff to the employers planned changes. HSA stewards will be attending these meetings to observe and, where possible, the unions labour relations officers will also be in attendance.

A new HSA TV ad will reach people living in every community in the province over the next month. The new ad, launched this week, will be run alongside the memorable HSA TV ad debuted last fall.

-Were building on the success of last years TV campaign," said HSA President Reid Johnson. -For the first time in our history, HSA is telling our story by making a long-term commitment to reaching the huge audiences watching prime-time television on all the major channels."

The Report: September 2011 vol.32 num.3

NADIA GALE AND HER COLLEAGUES SEE THE PERSON BEHIND THE TISSUE SAMPLE

WHEN LABORATORY TECHNOLOGIST Nadia Gale heard shed won the Medical Technologist/ Technician Award for Continued Professional Development, conferred by the Canadian Association of Pathologists this spring, she was of course thrilled ... not just for herself, but for all laboratory technologists.

The Health Sciences Association has learned that Interior Health Authority is planning a major reorganization of laboratory services in the region, and is condemning the Authoritys failure to consult the union when members jobs and service to patients are to be affected.

August 25, HSA learned that Interior Health Authority plans to reorganize laboratory services and that supervisory duties will potentially be stripped from long-service employees.