BURSTMore nurses are expected to join the picket lines outside hospitals across British Columbia in the coming weeks, as negotiations have once again reached an “impasse,” the B.C. Nurses’ Union announced on Thursday, July 9.
Picket lines were established at Vancouver General Hospital on Tuesday, July 7, and new lines began forming outside Surrey Memorial Hospital and the Jim Pattison Outpatient Care and Surgery Centre in Surrey early on Thursday, July 9.
“Nurses do not want to be on picket lines, and we do not want patients to experience disruption,” said B.C. Nurses’ Union president Adriane Gear outside Surrey Memorial Hospital Thursday (July 9).
“Every effort has been made to avoid reaching this point. But when bargaining reaches an impasse, employers say they cannot move beyond the government’s mandate, and nurses are intimidated for exercising their legal rights, we have no choice but to increase the pressure,” Gear said.
On June 29, the B.C. The Nurses’ Union filed a 72-hour strike notice with the B.C. Labour Relations Board and the Health Employers Association of B.C.
The strike action notice comes after 67 per cent of B.C. nurses voted to reject a tentative collective agreement negotiated between the B.C. Nurses’ Union and the Health Employers’ Association on May 22.
Ten days earlier, 98.2 per cent of the union’s more than 50,000 members had voted in favour of job action, which could include striking. The union said it was the strongest strike mandate in the union’s history. This followed six months of negotiations and the declaration of an impasse on April 20.
Gear said the employer returned to the bargaining table on Monday with “good intentions” and that it was a “very respectful negotiation” between the two sides.
She could not say much about it, except, “we were able to agree to some – I’m going to call it tweaking of some of the contract that was actually rejected by our members.”
But “we are at impasse, and unless the government becomes involved, this is where we are, and that is in part why we are escalating. In part, we are escalating because, frankly, of the unacceptable treatment that many nurses are experiencing in exercising their rights to participate in lawful job action,” she said.
Nurses have filed more than 2,300 reports of intimidation since job action began on July 2, according to the union. These nurses say they are being threatened with discipline, told they could lose their licences and being forced to work overtime or perform non-nursing duties.
The BCNU has filed an application with the BC Labour Relations Board for unfair labour practice and the attempts to interfere with the job action.
“Despite these challenges, one thing has become very clear: our job action of refusing to perform non-nursing duties is having an impact,” Gear said. “Employers are feeling the effects, because nurses have stopped carrying the work that should never have been ours in the first place. Most importantly, members are united and continue to demonstrate remarkable solidarity and resolve. We are determined to achieve a collective agreement that recognizes our professional expertise, improves our working conditions, and shows genuine respect for the care we provide to the people of British Columbia.”
Patient care is a protected essential service that will continue, but it is the striking workers’ right to refuse to perform extra duties.
Gear said there is no set end date for the Surrey Memorial or Vancouver General picket lines, although the Vancouver one will briefly pause; picket lines and announced new picket lines will be established outside Victoria General Hospital on July 12, Nanaimo Regional General Hospital on July 13 and Royal Jubilee Hospital and South Island Surgical Centre on July 14.
-With files from Lauren Collins & Mark Page