OSOYOOS TIMES-November 18, 2009

By Paul Everest – Osoyoos Times

British Columbia’s paramedics “have no intention of putting our labour dispute on hold for the Olympics,” said B.J. Chute, a spokesman for the union that represents the paramedics.
On Nov. 6, the provincial government passed legislation to end a seven-month-long strike by the paramedics.
Brian Cotton, a spokesman for the B.C. Health Services Ministry, said in an email that the legislation “was introduced because of the impact of H1N1 on our acute care system and the upcoming winter season.”
“We could not afford the risk of the BC Ambulance Service not operating at 100 per cent when the rest of the system is under stress,” he said.
“The impact of H1N1 could be the tipping point when you combine a shortage of ambulance paramedics and managers working 70 to 80 hour work weeks with impacts on the BCAS from a congested acute system and we were not prepared to put the lives of British Columbians at risk.”
Chute said, however, that the government’s emphasis on the H1N1 flu as the reason for bringing in legislation to end the strike is part of a series of “continued lies” from the province.
He said the real reason the government ended the strike was due to pressure from the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games (VANOC).
That pressure, he said, is indicated in a memo VANOC sent to the British Columbia Ambulance Service (BCAS), which employs B.C.’s paramedics, in September.
“VANOC Medical Services (and thus the IOC) requires definitive confirmation by Oct 1, 2009 that all required ambulance services will be provided as planned,” states the memo, which was released to the media by the paramedics union. “This confirmation must also include a guarantee that no services during the Games will be disrupted or reduced from what has been planned.
“If we are unable to obtain that guarantee (through either settlement of the strike or legislated “detente” for the Games), then VANOC will be required to initiate alternative contingency plans to avoid cancellation of the Games.”
When asked what role this memo played in the government’s decision to pass the strike-ending legislation, Cotton said it is “vital” that paramedics staff major special events in B.C. to “protect public health and safety in the event of an emergency.”
“The upcoming Olympic events are no different,” he said. “A point which was reaffirmed by the Labour Relations Board when it made an order designating several pre-game trial events as essential.”
Chute said that through the back-to-work legislation, paramedics received a three-per-cent general wage increase on a one-year term back-dated to April.
The union was voting on a similar offer prior to the legislation being passed, he added.
Under those terms, Chute said, paramedics will be back to bargaining by Dec. 10.
“We’re here to bargain and we expect the government to be at the bargaining table regardless of the fact that they’re hosting the province’s biggest party.”
The paramedics went on strike April 1 calling on the province to address concerns about wage increases, problems with ambulance response times and poor conditions in B.C.’s ambulance stations.
They continued to work under an essential services order passed by the province’s Labour Relations Board.
Chute said the union wants an independent arbitrator to look at the union’s concerns.
Such a system is used to resolve labour disputes with police and firefighters, he added.
The province has announced it will appoint an “Industrial Inquiry Commissioner” to identify options on how to repair the broken labour relations structure between the BCAS and the paramedics union before the next round of bargaining.
Even though the government has ended the paramedics’ “legal strike,” Chute said, the labour dispute has not been resolved.
He said he could not elaborate on what action the union might take in the coming weeks.

LOCAL AMBULANCES, PARAMEDICS SENT TO COAST TO HELP WITH STAFFING SHORTAGES

The BCAS said in a Nov. 14 media release, however, that it had to deal with short-staffing issues on the weekend after 50 paramedics booked off “previously filled shifts on short notice.”
The shortage meant 23 ambulances in the Lower Mainland were out of service.
Chris Harbord, a BCAS spokeswoman, said ambulances and paramedics from the South Okanagan were moved to the Lower Mainland to help out.
“On Saturday night, a paramedic from the Osoyoos station and a paramedic from the Penticton station went to the Lower Mainland to staff an ambulance there,” she said. “We moved an ambulance from Oliver to cover the community on Sunday since the Osoyoos paramedic was scheduled to work in Osoyoos that day.”
The BCAS did file  an application with the Labour Relations Board  on Nov. 14 accusing the paramedics union of illegal strike action.
But Harbord said that application was withdrawn when staffing levels stabilized.
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