Date: Thu, 15 Nov 2007 18:20:23 -0800 (PST)
Subject: [KCUTS] Kootenay Healthworkers oust CLAC, join HEU
From: meadow@netidea.com
HOSPITAL EMPLOYEES UNION
HEU Bargaining Bulletin (November 15, 2007)
LINK TO: Printer Friendly Version
(http://www.heu.org/%7EDOCUMENTS/BargBulletins_PFV/BB%2011-15-07%20Kootenay%20
rejects%20CLAC.pdf)
About 250 health care workers at two privately-operated care facilities in
the Kootenays have voted to join the Hospital Employees? Union.
In Nelson, more than 90 care staff employed by Advocare at Mountain Lake
Seniors Community joined HEU as part of a joint campaign with the B.C.
Government and Service Employees Union (BCGEU) that also included some of
the company's operations in the Okanagan. In a Labour Relations Board
(LRB)-supervised vote counted on Wednesday, workers rejected the Christian
Labour Association of Canada (CLAC) and voted to join an HEU/ BCGEU
"poly-party" bargaining unit.
Once the certification has been confirmed by the LRB, the HEU/BCGEU
bargaining unit will negotiate a first collective agreement covering
workers at Mountain Lake and the sites in the Okanagan.
Mountain Lake is owned by Park Place Seniors, which also operates Pine
Grove Care Centre in Kamloops, where workers also rejected CLAC in favour
of HEU last year. HEU has since reached a collective agreement for
workers at that facility.
In Cranbrook, more than 160 staff at Golden Life's Joseph Creek Village
voted to join the HEU in an LRB ballot also counted this week. The workers
provide both support services and direct care to seniors in that community.
In August 2006, the LRB found that Golden Life had intimidated and coerced
workers to ratify a CLAC collective agreement. As a result, HEU was given
access to workers through work site meetings.
HEU also represents workers and has negotiated a collective agreement at
Golden Life's Rocky Mountain Village in Fernie, Crest View Village in
Creston, and Garden View Village in Kimberley.
HEU's secretary-business manager Judy Darcy welcomed the union's newest
members from the Kootenays to B.C.'s largest health care union.
"These workers have stood up for their democratic right to join a union of
their own choice, despite pressure from their employer," says Darcy.
"We thank them for their courage, and for their vote of confidence in the
HEU."
--