Negotiations aimed at concluding a new contract covering 16,000 health care and administrative workers in the Community Health Services and Support sub-sector continued last week in Vancouver. Talks will continue.

On Monday and again on Wednesday last week, the Health Employers Association of British Columbia (HEABC) presented a broad based benefits proposal.  The Community Bargaining Association (CBA) is reviewing the proposals and we will provide you with the details when the bargaining committee has been able to get clarity.

Bargaining discussions between the Health Science Professionals Bargaining Association (HSPBA) and Health Employers Association of BC (HEABC) for a new collective agreement for BCs health science professionals will resume at the end of August.

HSPBA Chief Negotiator Jeanne Meyers said the delay in bargaining is disappointing. The collective agreement, like many public sector collective agreements, expired on March 31, 2011.

The union representing rehabilitation therapists at Chilliwack General Hospital is joining community leaders in calling for consultation before the hospitals rehab unit is unilaterally closed.

The Health Sciences Association represents physiotherapists, occupational therapists, social workers, and other rehab specialists across BC, including at Chilliwack General Hospital.

HSA President Reid Johnson said a unilateral closure of the rehab unit is a big blow to the community. He questioned how the new plan for Fraser Health therapy services was developed.

Health care professionals across the country will be staging a National Day of Action for Refugee Health Care on Monday, June 18 to protest the Conservative government's cuts to the Interim Federal Health Program (IFHP).

National organizations representing several health professions, including the Canadian Association of Social Workers and the Canadian Pharmacists Association, are organizing events to protest these drastic cuts, scheduled to take effect on June 30th.

HSA members are encouraged to attend the Vancouver event as follows:

Strike vote meetings
Community Social Services members represented by HSA are continuing to participate across the province at multi-union information and strike vote meetings.
 
Click here for a complete list of strike vote meetings, or visit http://www.hsabc.org/viewBulletins.php?nid=1386&cat=
 

HSAs younger workers are a crucial and dynamic part of our union. In recent years, weve identified shifting attitudes, needs, and ideas from these members.

For a better understanding of these needs and to develop a strategy for more effectively engaging and mobilizing younger workers, HSA is invites your participation in a collaborative project. To inform future HSA services and programs, we want you ... our younger workers ... to help us identify what the goals, strategies, and activities of our young worker engagement program should be.

HSA has resolved a long-standing classification dispute with HEABC that involved 135 grievances and affected many more HSA members working in counselling professions.

-The settlement agreement provides a continuing, consistent approach to classifying these jobs, which is important for ensuring that health science professionals receive fair compensation for their scope of responsibility" Kathy McLennan, HSA Membership Services Coordinator, said.

Talks broke down yesterday between the provincial government, employers and the ten unions representing BC's 15,000 community social services workers. As a result, there will be a strike vote for all unionized workers in the sector.

Outstanding issues include: wages, benefits, sick leave, reimbursable expenses and concessionary demands by the employer, including revisiting improvements gained in the last round of bargaining. 

The Community Bargaining Association (CBA) met last week and over the weekend in Vancouver to exchange and discuss proposals with the Health Employers' Association of British Columbia (HEABC).

Last week the two parties discussed issues and exchanged amendments to previously tabled proposals. The CBA tabled counter proposals related to casuals, job postings and classifications. HEABC and CBA tabled and discussed counter proposals to the grievance and arbitration procedures and continued to discuss the scheduling provisions.