The Community Bargaining Association (CBA) ... representing 14,000 community health services and support workers ... met on October 18 to discuss next steps in trying to achieve a collective agreement with the Health Employers Association of British Columbia (HEABC).

No new bargaining dates have been set.

So far, significant progress has been made in resolving many of the non-monetary issues, including the renewal of many Memoranda of Understanding attached to the collective agreement, and improvements to the grievance and arbitration provisions.

Members of the Heath Science Professionals Bargaining Association (HSPBA) bargaining committee spent the past several days in productive discussions with the Health Employers Association of BC (HEABC) aimed at finding ways to contain and manage costs of benefits without reducing benefits that have previously been negotiated.

The Nurses' Bargaining Association has voted almost 85 percent in favour of accepting the contract negotiated last month between the NBA and the Health Employers Association of BC.

In the vote, psychiatric nurses represented by HSA registered their significant concerns about the imposition of two-tiered benefits proposed as part of the new contract.

The contract has provisions to reduce heavy workload, improve patient care, add more RNs/RPNs, and increase earnings for nurses.

Health Sciences Association, on behalf of the Health Science Professionals Bargaining Association (HSPBA), is calling for the withdrawal of a province-wide policy that threatens to fire health science professionals who refuse to declare whether they have been vaccinated against seasonal flu.

Fifteen thousand community-based social service workers across BC are in a position to strike as of today, and rotating job action begins with a rally at Christy Clarks MLA office in Kitsilano today starting at 10am.

HSA President Reid Johnson says the BC government has put vulnerable families last on its priority list, slashing $300 million in funding since 2004 for programs that support the developmentally disabled, vulnerable women, at-risk youth, and children and infants in community-based programs across the province.

Health Sciences Association is conducting a ratification vote by HSA's Registered Psychiatric Nurses on the tentative agreement reached between the Nurses' Bargaining Association and HEABC.

HSA's board of directors urges HSA registered psychiatric nurses to vote "no" to the tentative agreement, as it introduces an element of two-tiered benefits, opening the door to an erosion of benefits for all nurses in the future. See the information package here.

Important information meetings about the tentative agreement reached between the Nurses Bargaining Association and Health Employers' Association of BC are being held as follows:

HSA's board of directors urges HSA registered psychiatric nurses to vote "no" to the tentative agreement, as it introduces an element of two-tiered benefits, opening the door to an erosion of benefits for all nurses in the future.

Members will be contacted directly if their workplace is a target for job action
 
Targeted job action in community social services will start next week with a protest at BC Liberal Premier Christy Clarks constituency office in Vancouver on October 16.
 

In the wake of tentative agreements reached in the master provincial government workers (BCGEU) and nurses bargaining (NBA) contracts, the Health Science Professionals Bargaining Association (HSPBA) and Health Employers Association of BC (HEABC) return to the bargaining table today.

Jeanne Meyers, chief negotiator for the HSPBA, said the bargaining association is optimistic that the tentative agreements achieved at those two tables signals a willingness by government to return to the health science professionals bargaining table with an appetite to bargain.

HSAs registered psychiatric nurses, covered by the Nurses Bargaining Association collective agreement, are invited to participate in one of two telephone town hall meetings scheduled for tomorrow, Wednesday October 10.

To join the call, simply answer the phone, and you will be connected. Please ensure HSA has your personal / home phone number by emailing your full name and contact info to memberlist@hsabc.org ... or you can sign in at www.hsabc.org and update your information by logging in.