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Paramedic’s call back-to-work legislation an ‘attempt to hide’ broken system
CUPE spokesperson calls strike-ending bill “government rhetoric”

By Andrew Bates, CUP Western
Bureau Chief

KELOWNA, B.C. (CUP)—The recently
passed Ambulance Service Collective
Agreement Act, which forces British
Columbia’s s paramedic legal strike to end,
is a “joke,” said a union spokesperson.
“Tt’s needless legislation that I think is an
attempt to hide the fact that ambulance
service is broken when the world comes
[for the Vancouver Olympics] in 2010,” said
B.J. Chute, spokesman for the Canadian
Union of Public Employees local 873,
which represents British Columbia’s 3,500
ambulance paramedics.

According to the B.C. Ministry of
Health, it’s important that the paramedic
system was working at 100 per cent. “With
the HIN1 pandemic impacting the acute
care system and winter and the holiday
season fast approaching, the public needs
certainty that they'll have the care they need
in an emergency,” said Kevin Falcon, the
provincial minister of health, in a release.

Bargaining has been going on since
December of 2008, and the strike began
in April when the last contract ran out.
During the strike, B.C.’s labour relations
board passed essential service orders that
sent paramedics back to work doing both
regular shifts and on-call work. Paramedics
have been displaying magnets on the side
of ambulances that read “ON STRIKE” and
have been wearing similar shirts.

Falcon maintains that service has
suffered. “In the Lower Mainland, the
number of ambulances out of service each
month has jumped to 150, compared to just
12 per month before the strike began,” he
said in the release. “We can’t afford to have
the ambulance service operating at less than

peak effectiveness.”

Chute, however, disputes that claim.

“In many cases there were more
paramedics on the road because paramedics
were forced to work on their days off and
forced to work overtime at the whim of
the employer,” he said. He claimed that
the essential service order made assigned
overtime shifts mandatory, while they are
ordinarily not. “I don’t understand the
government line about having to have
paramedics at work because like I said, we
were already at work during our strike.”

   

making ambulances a municipal service or

privatizing them.

Chute maintains that the last offer from
the government was unacceptable because
of its narrow focus. “It was only going to
look, and possibly still is only going to look,
at the bargaining structure for paramedics,
it doesn’t take into account things like
training or the number of ambulances or
compensation or part-time work or call-
out work,” he said. “We think the entire
ambulance service needs to be investigated
and recommendations need to be made on

“1 think this is nothing short of Olympic legislation, despite what
the government rhetoric is about having to get paramedics back
to work because of an H1N1 virus.” —B.J. Chute, CUPE

According to Chute, some of the
problems with the government’s last offer
to the union include an attempt to set up
a commission to change the bargaining
system itself and an attempt to remove
the guarantee of a provincial ambulance
service. “That’s not something we could,
in good conscience, recommend to our
members,” Chute told the Canadian
University Press. He said that options
put forth at the bargaining table included

how to fix the entire ambulance service with
legislation.”

The newly legislated retroactive
one-year contract, which gives a three per
cent overall wage increase, is a generous
one, according to Falcon. “We believe this
increase is more than generous at a time
of global economic uncertainty,” he wrote.
“We are also profoundly aware there-is no
more room in the [B.C. Ambulance Service]
budget to increase compensation without

undermining service delivery.”

However, according to Chute, the
contract is worse than the government’s last
offer, removing a three per cent increase
to on-call stipends for paramedics and a
potential 1.2 per cent increase dependent
on savings within the collective bargaining
agreement.

Chute believes that this legislated
contract may have more to do with the
Olympics than anything else. “I think this
is nothing short of Olympic legislation,
despite what the government rhetoric is
about having to get paramedics back to
work because of an H1N1 virus,” he said.

He said that “we . . . have a memo
from VANOC that tells the government that
they need a guarantee that our strike will be
over, and that guarantee needs to be in the
form of a contract or a legislated détente.”

The legislated contract will end two
months after the Olympics close. Ryan
Jabs, a Ministry of Health spokesperson,
maintained that ambulance services have
always been required at major events and
BCAS officials have been involved in
Olympic planning for over a year.

While this contract may have made
the dust appear to settle, little has changed
for the paramedics. The new contract ends
next April, and CUPE have already served
notice to the government to start bargaining.
Paramedics are still working like they were
before, and haven’t taken off the “ON
STRIKE” stickers.

“We directed our members to
leave them on,” Chute said. The bill, he
continued, “ended our strike, but it doesn’t
end our labour dispute in this province,
nor does it do anything to fix the broken
ambulance service.”

 

Massey Theatre supporters speak out

Landmark faces destruction because of cash-strapped City of New Westminster

 
    

Tanya | Colledge

staff rey i

ollowing much debate on the
F future of the Massey Theatre,
supporters filled the council

chambers at the historic city landmark
on Monday evening to speak out about
the theatre’s impact on their lives and
the community.

The theatre has recently begun
a fight for its life upon receipt of an
engineer’s report in September stating
it would cost $18 million dollars to the
City of New Westminster to bring the
Massey Theatre up to code—money the
city simply does not have. In addition, a
proposed motion to build a replacement
building for the New Westminster
Secondary School, which would result
in the demolition of the theatre, has
spurred much controversy amongst
locals.

From New Westminster Secondary
School students to local theatre
enthusiasts, the crowd made it clear

6

  

to the City that they would not let
their beloved theatre go down without
a fight. Miss New Westminster
Ambassador 2009, Michelle Murray,
said that the Massey theatre has
provided her, along with hundreds of
other students, many opportunities to
better themselves through music and
dance.

Other community members pulled
quotes from legendary figures such as
Sir Winston Churchill and Gabrielle
Roy in hopes to convince the city
council that the theatre, a true gem, is
worth saving.

Thousands of other supporters
showed their dedication to the theatre
by joining the online “Save the Massey
Theatre” Facebook group, which now
has more than 2,000 members—more
than the entire population of those who
rallied to save Grimston Park when a
school was proposed for a portion of
that site.

The supporters hope that City
Council will go into deliberations with
the school board informed, and with
a new sense of inspiration after the

 

|
two-hour round of delegations from

the community on Monday night.
Acting mayor Bill Harper says that City
Council has not yet sat down to discuss
the Massey Theatre in terms of costs
and logistics as of yet, and ensured the

 

Pi
public that no decision would be made
until that happens. In the meantime, the
City has requested more analysis on the
findings of the building inspection that
occurred in September.

OL —_——