Date: Fri, 19 Mar 2004 09:23:35 -0800
From: Moe <moe@kootenaycuts.com>
Subject: [KCUTS] Hospital Workers Set to Fight Slasher Liberal Government
Hospital Workers Set to Fight Slasher Liberal Government
Gene McGuckin
From The Pulper, Newsletter of CEP Local 1129, Burnaby, BC, March 2004
18-Mar-04: Battered and bloody, the Hospital Employees Union (HEU) is once
again gearing up to take on the slasher government of Gordon Campbell's
Liberals allied with the Employers' Council of BC.
HEU's 40,000 members are taking a province-wide strike vote through the
rest of March. If they follow their Provincial Executive's recommendation,
they could be on the bricks by April 1. HEU and about 3,000 other health
workers in other unions have been at the bargaining table for two months.
They are dealing with a Health Employers Association (HEABC) agenda that
contains 109 pages of concession demands including pay cuts of up to 16 per
cent, additional benefit premium and deductible costs of $2,000 to $3,000 a
year, less vacation time, and less sick pay (see lowlights below).
During the same time, various employers have issued pink slips to over
2,500 HEU members at hospitals and long-term care facilities. That's in
addition to another 3,500 members who were fired earlier. [Flash! As this
is being written 327 more HEU jobs have been contracted out at St. Paul's
Hospital in Vancouver.] All of these firings are made possible by the fact
that the slasher government tore up the last contract HEU signed with
health employers. This got rid of the annoying seniority and job security
clauses that protected workers' jobs.
Those workers, mostly women (housekeepers, food service workers, laundry
workers, etc.), have been sent to the unemployment lines, while the
employers contract out their work to predatory foreign companies paying
half wages ($9/hour) and no benefits. So, you wonder why the
government/employer juggernaut doesn't just carry on and get rid of HEU
altogether through contracting out. Well, the problem is that some jobs
have to be done by skilled, experienced people at least for a while. So,
the government has decided to open up a second front and try to crush those
workers whose jobs can't be contracted out right away.
Meanwhile, of course, there is the becoming-traditional shameful silence
from the rest of the labour movementincluding the CEPabout offering HEU
significant and effective support in their battle. If HEU goes out, it is
virtually guaranteed that the Liberals will bring in strikebreaking
legislation. There is an increasing possibility that despite such
legislation the picket lines will stay up. If that happens, then the rest
of us in the labour movement will have to make a decision.
Will we back this union with mass picketing support and sympathy strikes
across the province? Or will we watch them be crushed on our TV sets,
knowing that this will give the Liberals and bosses a green light to attack
and crush other Unions one at a time?
The BC Federation of Labour and its affiliatesincluding the CEPhave a
clear mandate to bring the union movement out fighting. In both the 2002
and 2003 BC Fed conventions delegates voted for 'Action Plans' that would
include region-wide and even province-wide job actions. Recent meetings of
the Fed officers (including affiliate leaders) were supposed to be devoted
to working out a "detailed strategic work plan" based on the mandate of the
two Action Plans mentioned above. Instead, the officers decided to do
little beyond keeping up a propaganda campaign against privatization. This
is a conscious violation of the direction delegates gave them at two
conventions.
It is also an unconscionable dereliction of duty in the face of the HEU's
critical and imminent peril.
Below are excerpts from a summary, prepared by an HEU member, of the
employer concession demands:
* * * Ready for Concessions? Ready to Walk? You Decide!
37.5 hour work week, up from 36 hoursrepresents a 4% wage reduction;
12% wage rollback for targeted groups such as; security, cleaners, cooks,
food services, grounds keepers, house keeping, maintenance workers, nursing
assistants, porters, transportation attendants;
8% wage rollback for targeted groups such as; accounting, admin assistants,
buyers, cardio/ultra-sound techs, clerks, volunteer coordinators, ECG/EEG
assistants, inventory analysts, lab techs, LPN's, medical records, nursing
assistants, payroll, pharmacy techs;
35-cent per hour rollback for targeted groups such as; biomed, trades, IT
techs and programmers, engineers;
super stats goneall stats worked to be paid at double time;
annual vacationminimum 5-15 days lost;
supplementary vacationsgone;
special leavenow only covers spouse or child;
sick leavewill only be paid at 75% of your wages;
sick leaveno more accumulation towards your payout entitlement (40% upon
retirement) MEDICAL:
medical plan (MSP) full-timersemployer to cover 75%, not 100% of
premiumwill cost the typical family $324.00 extra per year;
medical plan (MSP) part-timersemployer to cover 50% not 100% of
premiumwill cost the typical family $648.00 extra per year;
drug cost deductibleup from $25.00 to $100.00 annually, an extra $75.00;
80% reimbursed of drug costs up from $1,000 to $2,000 before 100%
reimbursement kicks inan extra
$200.00; DENTAL:
dental plan full-timersemployer to cover 75% not 100% of premiumwill cost
the typical family $370.32 extra per year;
dental plan part-timersemployer to cover 50% not 100% of premiumwill cost
the typical family $740.64 extra per year;
dental deductibleup from ZERO to $100.00 annually; EXTENDED HEALTH:
extended health plan full-timersemployer to cover 75% not 100% of
premiumwill cost the typical family $186.60 extra per year;
extended health plan part-timersemployer to cover 50% not 100% of
premiumwill cost the typical family $373.20 extra per
year; GROUP LIFE:
group life full-timersemployer to cover 75% not 100% of premium;
group life part-timersemployer to cover 50% not 100% of
premium; LTD, WCB, PAY EQUITY
ETC…:
Unheard of and unconscionable cuts that will cause incredible undo hardship
for our members on WCB and especially Long Term Disability.
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S/he who fears not the death of a thousand cuts will dare unhorse the emperor.
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