News & Updates

Court asked to strike down Premier Campbell's contract-breaking law, Bill 29 BC unions representing more than 100,000 health care workers today launched legal action in BC Supreme Court alleging that the Campbell government's contract-breaking legislation, Bill 29, violates the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and is unconstitutional. And at a Vancouver press conference this afternoon, leaders from the four...

The union that represents more than 10,000 health science professionals across the province is concerned that the Liberals plan to privatize $700 million in health care service is only the beginning. Responding to a leaked budget document revealed Monday by the Hospital Employees Union, the Health Science Association of BC warns that many direct services to patients are also under...

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After promising that the government would protect "clinical services" in hospitals, the Campbell Liberals have quietly approved regulations that will allow health employers to privatize a variety of direct services to patients, including respiratory therapy, speech pathology, CT scans and MRI. Although the Liberal government claimed that Bill 29 would allow hospitals to privatize only "non-clinical services" such as laundry...

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Todays attack on health care contracts will have a devastating impact on the provinces ability to recruit and retain health care professionals, says Cindy Stewart, President of the Health Sciences Association of BC. Stewart says that under the new legislation, there will no longer be any provincial mechanism for keeping track of displaced health care professionals and relocating them to...

Gordon Campbell is poisoning labour relations in British Columbia and plunging the province into an era of chaos, say representatives of the BC Government and Service Employees Union, the Hospital Employees Union, the Canadian Union of Public Employees, the Health Sciences Association, and the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, Local 1518. The five unions, all representing workers in health...

The Report: January / February 2002 vol.23 num.1 by YUKIE KURAHASHI Wendy Watts was well on her way to becoming a concert pianist when she changed her mind. -I was training for a degree in music, but I had always wanted to be either a counsellor or social worker," she said. -So I thought music therapy was a good combination...

The Report: January / February 2002 vol.23 num.1 by MAUREEN WHELAN Each year around this time, The Report features an advertisement for the Working Opportunity Fund (WOF) as members gear up to invest in their RRSPs. Some of you may wonder what’s the connection between HSA and WOF. Ten years ago, HSA joined with six other labour organizations to form...

The Report: January / February 2002 vol.23 num.1 by JEANNE MEYERS What rights do HSA members have to "bump" when faced with a lay-off? An HSA member facing lay-off may be able to -bump" a more junior employee. Many collective agreements clearly indicate that employees affected by lay-off have the right to transfer to jobs held by employees with less...