Labour News From British Columbia
From Canada's News Services
Canadian Press, Southam, The Sun, Globe & Mail, Toronto Star, Financial Post

NURSES STRIKE

• Some surgeries to be fast-tracked
  Hundreds of British Columbians facing lengthy hospital wait lists will have their surgeries fast-tracked after the province agreed Thursday to put up more cash to reduce surgical backlogs. Health Minister Penny Priddy directed the province's hospitals to immediately prepare action plans to address growing waiting lists in the wake of the recently-ended nurses' strike.
  
• Psychiatric patient released from hospital during strike commits suicide
  A psychiatric patient released last week as Prince George Regional Hospital cut back services to deal with the nurses strike has committed suicide. Donna Michaud, of Ashcroft, B.C., is demanding answers to why her brother was released from the hospital's psychiatric ward last week. Ken Thompson, 46, jumped off a bridge near his home in Vanderhoof on Wednesday. He had a history of mental illness. "I'd like to know why he was released when he wasn't ready," said Michaud. But a hospital official said there was no connection between the strike and Thompson's death.
  
• Nurses stop strike, take down pickets
  Nurses began taking down picket lines at British Columbia hospitals late Wednesday after a mediator settled several issues. But other major issues, such as workload and nurses’ pay, have not yet been settled, prompting mediator Brian Foley to begin writing non-binding recommendations he will give to the labour minister by Tuesday. "They can’t run that last bit of the marathon," said Foley. "I’m going to have to help them over that hump." The B.C. Nurses Union agreed to stop all job action until Foley has delivered his report and both sides have voted on it. That includes an end to a work-to-rule campaign and a ban on overtime, campaigns that have been going on for weeks.
  
• Priority given to worst-off patients
  In a board room at strike-bound Vancouver General Hospital, the life-or-death needs of seriously ill patients are being assessed with excruciating precision -- as never before.Such is the sorry state of health care while B.C. nurses walk the picket line, according to VGH officials. But the nurses disagree. They say it is another "almost hysterical" attempt by the employer to scare the public about the impact of their strike, which began
• Nurses scale back walkout
  The BC Nurses Union pulled back from escalating their job action late Sunday by deciding to put only five hospitals behind picket lines today rather than the 40 the union announced earlier.
  
• Hospital says nurses' strike is cancelling important surgeries
  The province's main facility for urgent cancer surgery is being severely hampered by a nurses' strike and patients' lives are hanging in the balance, a Vancouver General Hospital official said Monday.
  
• Nurses' union expects a breakthrough
  British Columbia nurses have cancelled plans to expand a strike to as many as 40 hospitals as negotiators try to strike a deal with the help of provincial mediator Brian Foley. Picket lines went up around five hospitals last Friday and the B.C. Nurses Union voted Saturday to expand their strike to 35 more hospitals. But union spokesman Art Moses said late Sunday those plans were cancelled as "a show of good faith." Instead, picket lines will be withdrawn from the five hospitals affected and five other hospitals will be hit.
  
• Health workers illegally locked out in Quesnel, says HEU

  Quesnel's G.R. Baker Memorial Hospital has closed its mental health unit, sent patients home and illegally locked out health workers, says the Hospital Employees' Union. "There's absolutely no reason for health employers to deny mental health services to the community of Quesnel," says HEU secretary-business Chris Allnutt, "because there's no picket line up at G.R. Baker. Our members are ready and willing to provide this critical health care service."
  

• Nurses to expand picket lines
  British Columbia nurses will escalate their strike as planned and put up picket lines at 35 more hospitals around the province Monday morning. Pickets went up at five hospitals Friday. "For nurses, the decision to set up picket lines is always a difficult one," union president Cathy Ferguson said at a news conference Saturday to announce the expanded job action. "We regret that it has become necessary to take this action. But we need to keep the heat on our employers." Talks broke off two weeks ago between the joint bargaining group that includes unionized registered, psychiatric and community-care nurses and the Health Employer’s Association.
  
• Hospitals can offer only basic care during strike
  Health care at five strike-bound B.C. hospitals was described as strained Friday, although administrators said seriously ill patients were receiving adequate attention from essential-services staff.Union officials will meet today to decide whether to expand the strike Monday to another 34 acute-care hospitals or postpone that action to give mediator Brian Foley a chance to begin his work. Foley, who became involved in the dispute at the request of Labour Minister Dale Lovick, has scheduled individual meetings Sunday with the nurses' union and the employers' association. Nurses' spokeswoman Cathy Ferguson said the expanded job action will be delayed if nurses sense the employer is serious about bargaining. But she said pickets will remain in place at the five locations until a deal is reached.
  
• B.C. nurses' dispute escalates
  This is a good weekend for British Columbians to stay healthy, the head of the nurses' union said as several major hospitals braced for picket lines. Cathy Ferguson, president of the B.C. Nurses' Union, said if pickets at five major hospitals in the Vancouver area, Nanaimo and Victoria don't bring the health employers back to the table, the picketing will spread next week. The picketing is to start Friday morning.
  
• Nurses' dispute forces surgery cancellations
  B.C. hospitals were cancelling surgeries -- including cancer and heart operations -- and bracing for possible picket lines as nurses warned Tuesday that they were planning further job action to break the deadlock in a contract dispute.A spokeswoman for the B.C. Nurses Union said the negotiating team has not decided on the next step, but has advised all hospitals to move to essential services -- a minimal service primarily for emergency cases. Gary Moser, president of the Health Employers Association of B.C., said the union told him in a letter Tuesday to prepare for picket lines at any time, and he says some shop stewards have been warning individual hospital administrators that pickets could go up at some locations as early as today.
  
• Nurses extend overtime ban
  Nurses will extend a ban on overtime work to 13 more British Columbia hospitals Monday morning in an effort to reach a contract with their employers. The additional job action at hospitals in Campbell River, Cowichan, Penticton, Trail, Dawson Creek, Sechelt, Quesnel and the Vancouver area will bring to 30 the number around the province facing such job action. "All along we have said we would monitor the progress of talks and escalate if necessary," Cathy Ferguson, president of the B.C. Nurses Union, said Saturday. "There's no progress in talks, so we're escalating, unfortunately." Ferguson said the overtime ban will remain in effect in all the hospitals -- affecting 16,000 of the union's 25,000 members -- until a contract is signed.
  
• Nurses extends overtime ban
  The B.C. Nurses Union is extending its overtime ban to another 10 hospitals, beginning Saturday morning, over stalled contract talks. An overtime ban went into effect Thursday at Victoria's Royal Jubilee Hospital plus hospitals in Prince George, Prince Rupert, Kelowna and Burnaby.
  
• Negotiations between hospitals and nurses break down
  B.C. nurses say they will stop working overtime beginning Thursday now that contract talks with the health employers have broken down. Cathy Ferguson, president of the nurses union, said her members are taking the new job action because the Health Employers Association hasn't come up with enough money to meet nurses' demands. The employers offered $45 million over the next three years, far short of what the nurses want. Talks broke down Sunday after the health employers asked nurses to drop outstanding proposals on workload and equality issues.
  
• Health care needs major reforms: Priddy
  B.C.'s health care system will not survive without major reforms, Health Minister Penny Priddy believes. And solutions she favours -- such as reducing the control doctors now exercise in the system and having more doctors work on salaries -- have run into opposition from members of the medical profession.The health minister is currently embroiled in a bitter pay dispute with B.C.'s doctors and a work-to-rule campaign by nurses. But she argued that structural pressures, not continuing squabbles, pose the gravest danger over time.
  
• BC Nurses return to work-to-rule
  Nurses won't change beds, mop up spills or do other jobs which don't involve patient care in a renewed work-to-rule campaign starting today. Beginning at 1 p.m., members of the B.C. Nurses Union will start the job action in an effort to speed up contract talks that have been dragging on for weeks. The campaign comes almost two weeks after the nurses called off similar job action. They were concerned that hospitals would lock them out. But Cathy Ferguson, president of the union, said the nurses are frustrated at the continuing slow pace of the talks.
  
• BC Health employers prepare "Virtual Lockout"of health care employees
  Once again senior managers appear to be over-reacting to nurses' work-to-rule campaign by preparing to cancel patient services, reduce to essential service levels, prevent nurses from caring for patients, and send other health care employees home when they show up for work The Health Employers Association of BC is again over-reacting to the upcoming job action by nurses, preparing to cancel patient services and send employees home, the same way they'd react if they were confronted by picket lines. "Given the form of job action we're undertaking - focusing on direct patient care and making sure nurses don't miss their breaks - this is a totally inappropriate way for the employers to behave, to deny services to patients and force nurses and members of other health care unions to stay off the job when there is work to be done," says Cathy Ferguson, president of the BC Nurses' Union.
  
• BC HSA President predicts strong strike mandate
  As the HSA head office gears up for next week's strike vote, Cindy Stewart says she is confident that paramedical professionals will give the bargaining committee a strong strike mandate to back our efforts at the bargaining table. In a meeting yesterday with the HSA bargaining committee, Regional Directors and staff, HSA President Cindy Stewart said paramedical professionals have been waiting for months to deliver a powerful message to HEABC and the provincial government. See their strike page for more information
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