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November 27, 2019
BC
Forestry Workers' Strike Approaches Six Months
Steelworkers
Leadership Group Unanimously Rejects Proposal
by Western Forest Products
Hundreds
of workers from all sectors marched in Nanaimo, November 6, 2019, in
support of striking coastal forestry workers. (USW 1-1937)
• Nanaimo Rally Supports "No Concessions"
Stand of Forestry Workers
- Barbara Biley
Vancouver
Transit Workers Defend Their Rights and the Public Transit System
• Bus Drivers and
Maintenance Workers Reach Tentative Agreement -
Anne Jamieson and Brian Sproule
• SkyTrain Workers Vote
in Favour of Job Action
For Your Information
• Greater
Vancouver Transit System
University
of Northern BC Faculty Strike
• Appropriate
Compensation and Working Conditions for Professors, Librarians, Lab and
Contract Workers Demanded
• Letter to University of
Northern British Columbia, Board Chair
- Ontario Confederation of University Faculty
Associations
Quebec
Public Sector Negotiations
• Workers Speak Out About
Their Concerns and Needs - Interview,
Jeff Begley, President, Federation of Health and Social Services
BC Forestry Workers' Strike
Approaches Six Months
Negotiators for United Steelworkers Local 1-1937
representing BC coastal forestry workers employed by Western Forest
Products (WFP) and subcontractors met through a conference call with
WFP and Contractor Chairpersons on November 18 to report on mediation
sessions that were held on November 12, 16 and 17. The forestry workers
have been on strike since July 1 on issues related to wages, benefits,
unsafe working conditions and the abusive drug and alcohol policy.
 The negotiating
committee reported on what had taken place in mediation -- that there
had been some progress but that ended with what they characterized as
the company's "mediation delaying action," refusing to respond to the
union's last offer at midday November 17. The bargaining committee
reports, in Bargaining
Bulletin #32 dated November 18, that "The Union's
leadership group comprised of WFP and Contractor Chairpersons has
passed a unanimous motion directing the Bargaining Committee to reject
WFP's proposal in its entirety. The leadership group further stated
that WFP should stop its delaying tactics and get back to the mediation
table."
The committee reports that not only did the
company fail to address the union's proposals regarding the workers'
concerns, but the company's proposal actually eliminated "17 other
tentative agreements the parties have reached in the mediation process,
essentially wiping out much of the work already completed." Included in
language that was already negotiated, but now eliminated by WFP, were
agreements related to union security language improvements, health and
safety language improvements, apprentice selection improvements,
arbitrator and umpire appointments to speed up arbitration, member
support during drug and alcohol investigations and testing, and other
issues.
 As has become
their practice in attempting to undermine the union and the solidarity
of the workers behind their just demands and their bargaining
committee, the company issued a letter from CEO Don Demens directly to
USW Local 1-1937 members on November 18 which falsely claims that WFP
had removed concessionary demands, that the company has agreed to
extend Long Term Disability coverage past age 60, as well as other
false claims.
The Bulletin concludes with "The USW Bargaining
Committee remains available every day to continue mediation. We urge
WFP's bargaining committee to contact the Mediators to schedule more
dates. We are available starting tomorrow."
On November 25 the Bargaining Committee issued
another update, reporting that there still has been no reply from WFP
to the union's proposal of November 17, nor has the company contacted
the mediators to re-start discussions. The mediators requested a
conference call with the union spokesperson for November 26.
Labour Councils, union locals from both the
private and the public sector, and communities affected by the strike,
are standing firm in solidarity with the forestry workers' fight for
wages and working conditions that are acceptable to them and take into
consideration the dangers of their work and the needs of the workers,
their families and communities.
- Barbara Biley -
Rally in Nanaimo, November 6, 2019, in support of striking coastal
forestry workers.
Several hundred people from throughout Vancouver
Island gathered outside the offices of Western Forest Products (WFP) in
Nanaimo on November 6 to demand that the company return to negotiations
with the union. The workers, members of United Steelworkers' Local
1-1937, have repeatedly rejected WFP's attempts to impose major
concessions which would eliminate wages and working conditions that
have been achieved over a period of more than 40 years.
The crowd was full of banners and placards of many
unions. Health care workers, ferry workers, teachers and CUPE education
workers, longshore workers, several island MPs and many others were out
in force to support the just stand of the forestry workers. These
workers have been standing firm throughout the strike for a negotiated
contract that respects their rights and dignity, both in terms of
conditions previously agreed to and an end to unilateral anti-worker
actions of the company, many of which were facilitated by a contract
imposed through binding arbitration in 2004. Following the very loud
and spirited rally outside the WFP offices there was a short march to
Nob Hill Park where lunch was served.
USW Local 1-1937 president Brian Butler addresses rally, November 6,
2019.
The rally was addressed by several Steelworkers'
leaders including USW Local 1-1937 president Brian Butler, District 3
Director Steve Hunt, Fraser Valley Local 2009 president Al Bieksa, and
BC Federation of Labour president Laird Cronk and others. The message
from the speakers and the workers was clear, that WFP's refusal to
negotiate and its repeated attempts to stall, bully and intimidate
through charges at the Labour Board are recognized as attacks on the
rights of all and condemned by workers from all sectors and the broad
public.
So far there have been four mediation sessions.
The last of these ended October 20 when, in spite of the union amending
its demands, the company refused to move off of any of its
concessionary demands. At least twice the company has written directly
to the workers attempting to bypass and undermine the union's
bargaining committee. The latest such action was a letter from WFP CEO
Don Demens to individual workers on October 31 "offering" binding
arbitration and a similar letter to the union from WFP bargaining
committee spokesperson Roger MacDougall. The bargaining committee's
immediate and firm response to that was a definite NO!
 In the bargaining
bulletin issued November 1 the bargaining committee explained "The last
time the Local Union faced Binding Arbitration over its Collective
Agreement was in 2004, when the BC Liberal Government imposed Binding
Arbitration that forced the Union to accept a substandard Collective
Agreement which was gutted of many rights the Union had gained over
decades of collective bargaining [...]" Workers were "forced to accept
the employers' unilateral right to implement alternate shifts, which
previously had to be agreed upon between the Parties. This has created
untold hardship for members forced to work on fatigue-inducing, unsafe
work schedules" and "were also forced to accept whole logging
operations being contracted out through what is now known as the
Woodlands Letter of Understanding, which led to the introduction of
many new contractors and subcontractors, many of which created all
kinds of labour relations problems for our members and the Local Union.
Their rampant use became a divide and conquer strategy for the
Industry."
The bargaining committee stated, "Many other
negative results came from the imposed 2004 contract that still plagues
the membership to this day, as a consequence of Binding Arbitration.
Repeating mistakes of the past is not the way we will reach a
Collective Agreement [...] Binding Arbitration is completely
unacceptable. We can never give up control of our Collective Agreement
rights to another third party as history does not lie. We have
witnessed the damage and suffered the consequences of this dangerous
process and could never agree to it."
The day after the rally the union was notified
that WFP had agreed to return to mediation. The parties met on November
12, 16 and 17 until WFP decided that it would not respond to the
union's last offer on November 17 and mediation ended.
WFP is one of a handful of forest monopolies that
dominate the industry in BC and have benefitted from provincial
government policies that have permitted them to make record profits
from logging and manufacturing. WFP operates on the coast, mainly on
Vancouver Island. While closing mills in BC and shipping raw logs
overseas and shipping product to mills in the U.S., Western Forest
Products has purchased two sawmills in Arlington and Vancouver,
Washington since the beginning of 2018. WFP is the main player in the
coastal section of the forest industry, with both logging operations
and mills in Cowichan Bay, Chemainus, Ladysmith, Duke Point and Port
Alberni. The company recently closed the planer mill at its Saltair
Division in Ladysmith. Unfinished lumber is now taken to the two mills
in Washington to be planed as a means of getting around tariffs.
Over the last five years the company has reported
record profits from the added value created by forestry workers
employed by Western and subcontractors, without regard for the
well-being of the workers, including their safety on the job and going
to and from the job. The current efforts to impose concessions in
wages, benefits and working conditions and to increase subcontracting
so as to weaken the organization of the workers to defend their rights,
have earned them condemnation from not only the forestry workers but
from workers and local communities throughout the region.
Vancouver Transit Workers
Defend Their Rights and the Public Transit System
- Anne Jamieson and Brian
Sproule -
Posted to the Unifor Local 111 twitter feed, November 23, 2019: "With
all due respect to PR Dept ... Transit Workers are better
qualified to tell it like it really is. ... just ask and
listen to ANY Transit Worker in this room.
The 5,000 transit workers who provide bus and
ferry services in the Metro Vancouver area have been seeking wages and
benefits acceptable to themselves and improved working conditions which
are the conditions for the safe transport of the public.
The intransigence of CMBC regarding the concerns
of transit workers in Metro Vancouver for proper wages and working
conditions meant that workers announced on November 20 a three-day
system wide shutdown would take place on November 27, 28 and 29.
Negotiations resumed on November 26 after breaking down two weeks ago.
After 10 hours of negotiations, Unifor National President Jerry Dias
announced a 30 minute extension of the strike deadline past midnight to
permit negotiations to continue and a tentative agreement was announced
at 12:30 am this morning, averting the shutdown.
"This contract recognizes that Unifor members are
the backbone of the Metro Vancouver transit system," said Gavin
McGarrigle, Unifor Western Regional Director and lead negotiator. "We
look forward to being an integral part of an expanding system that
keeps this region moving." Job actions will end while ratification
votes take place in the coming days, following which details of the
agreement will be made public.
The contracts between Unifor Locals 111 and 2200
and the Coast Mountain Bus Company (CMBC) expired on March 31. With no
progress made in months of negotiations, in early October, the workers
voted 99 per cent for strike action and served 72 hours strike notice
on October 29. They have been engaged in job action to back their
contract demands since November 1.
The workers are organized in Locals 111,
representing the 4,000 transit operators that drive buses in the
Translink system; and Local 2200 representing nearly 1,000
tradespersons and technicians that maintain the buses and Seabus fleet.
CMBC is wholly owned by TransLink, the body which oversees public
transit operations in Metro Vancouver.
The Transit Strike Bulletin
published by Unifor states "At its core, this labour dispute is about
acknowledging the important role that transit workers play in a system
that is both under stress and expanding."
Three of the issues on the table were: parity of
drivers' wages with those of bus drivers in other large cities like
Toronto; adequate breaks during a shift for rest, food, and to use the
washroom; and wage parity between CMBC maintenance staff, and SkyTrain
maintenance staff.
The Transit Strike Bulletin
states that despite the company's disrespectful and entrenched
approach, both locals at first opted to take actions that were the
least disruptive to the public, which included a uniform ban by
operators and a ban on overtime by the mechanics.
 The ban on
overtime for maintenance workers resulted in daily cancellation of
SeaBus sailings and reduced bus service on a number of major routes.
The fact that this alone caused significant reductions in service only
proved that the working conditions are unsustainable, as everyone knows
that if the system is running on overtime it is running with a
significant shortage of workers. Bus drivers are also experiencing
serious problems because of understaffing, including not getting
bathroom breaks and other rest breaks, putting their safety and
well-being and that of the public at risk.
The entrenched position of TransLink (via CMBC),
was undoubtedly due to the fact that TransLink had decided that it
could not "afford" to meet the just demands of the transit workers
while at the same time proceeding with its planned expansion.
McGarrigle told Star Metro Vancouver
on October 11 that the issue of drivers working through their break
times in order to keep buses running on schedule has gone unresolved
for years. He said that workers are at a "breaking point." Burnout is
common. "Bus drivers need time to recover [...] going to the bathroom,
having something to eat, getting your head reset for the next route,
and they are dealing with completely overcrowded buses, passing up
passengers, having to assist the elderly. They are not machines, they
are humans, and they need adequate time to decompress and recover."
TransLink has reported an 18 per cent increase in
ridership between 2016 and 2018. According to McGarrigle this has
resulted in a 36 per cent increase in overcrowded buses. The small
community shuttle buses which service what are considered light volume
routes have special mechanical lifts at the rear for people using wheel
chairs or scooters as well as for people with shopping carts. These
lifts take time to load and unload passengers as well as to raise and
lower. Drivers also need time to adjust mirrors and the driver's seat
and do various safety checks.
A driver of a bus on one of the busiest routes in
Vancouver told Workers' Forum, "This job has
finished me -- I can't keep doing it." When asked about the issue of
breaks, he said that the route he is on supposedly has a 40-minute
break built into the schedule, but a driver "has to phone ahead and ask
for it." One time he phoned and asked for a break but it was denied and
he was told that the "break is for the bus, not the driver"! Though
well under 65, this worker has decided to take early retirement as soon
as he can do so without penalty (i.e. so that he can have a liveable
pension). He said he fully supports strike action, and has decided to
keep going until after the strike is over for the sake of his fellow
workers who have to stay and keep doing this stressful job.
CMBC had refused any reasonable compromise and dug
into their position, thus forcing the union to escalate actions. As
expected, CMBC had tried to put a wedge between the public and the
union by painting transit workers as selfish and uncaring, and is
quoted in the monopoly media as saying: "The union [will be] leaving
hundreds of thousands of customers without transportation." In fact it
is the employers who are selfish and uncaring both for the public, and
for the transit workers who are providing a crucial service to the
public.
Metro Vancouver transit riders were not taken in
by the attempts to blame the workers. The Transit Strike
Bulletin said, "Transit operators have been overwhelmed by
the support and solidarity from our passengers."
Nine hundred SkyTrain workers are in the midst of
negotiations with their employer, TransLink's BC Rapid Transit Company.
They include train operators, attendants, technicians, mechanics and
administrators on two of the three SkyTrain lines, the Millenium and
Expo lines, whose contract expired on August 31. They are represented
by CUPE Local 7000. On November 21, 96.8 per cent of members voted in
favour of job action if a contract isn't reached. Eight days of
mediation also began that day.
In a November 13 statement, union President Tony
Rebelo explained that outstanding issues include wage increases, sick
benefits, inadequate staffing levels and forced overtime.
The third SkyTrain line, the Canada Line, is
privately owned and operated by ProTransBC, a consortium headed by
SNC-Lavalin under a long-term agreement with TransLink.
For
Your Information
TransLink is the transportation authority
established by the province of British Columbia to provide regional bus
service, SkyTrain rapid transit, SeaBus passenger ferries linking the
North Shore to downtown Vancouver across Burrard Inlet, HandyDART
service for people with mobility issues, and West Coast Express
commuter rail, train service between Vancouver and Mission in the
Fraser Valley.
TransLink contracts with several operators:
Coast Mountain
Bus Company
TransLink's largest operating company is Coast
Mountain Bus Company Ltd. (CMBC) which operates over 96 per cent of the
bus service in the region, as well as SeaBus. Coast Mountain Bus
Company drivers and maintenance workers, members of Unifor, have been
engaged in job actions since the beginning of November. Other Coast
Mountain employees are members of CUPE and MoveUP and are not involved
in the job actions. Cleaners are employed by another subcontractor, as
are employees of the administration while customer service, including
transit ticket sales and promotions, are handled directly by TransLink
as are security services and policing.
Bombardier
Bombardier operates the West Coast Express.
BC Rapid Transit
Company
British Columbia Rapid Transit Company Ltd.
(BCRTC), on behalf of TransLink, maintains and operates two of the
three SkyTrain (light rapid transit) lines in Metro Vancouver -- the
Expo Line and the Millennium Line -- as well as the West Coast Express
commuter rail service.
ProTransBC
ProTrans BC is a subsidiary of SNC-Lavalin Inc.
and is the private operator of SkyTrain's Canada Line, a 19-km
automated rail-based rapid transit system connecting Downtown Vancouver
with central Richmond and the Vancouver International Airport.
West Vancouver
Blue Bus
West Vancouver Blue Bus is owned and operated by
the District Municipality of West Vancouver under a contract to
TransLink.
First Transit
HandyDART service is contracted to First Transit.
Workers in the different sections of the Greater
Vancouver transit system belong to several unions, including Unifor,
CUPE, MoveUP, Teamsters, and the Amalgamated Transit Union.
University of Northern BC
Faculty Strike
UNBC Faculty Association picket line, November 11, 2019.
Faculty Association members at the University of
Northern BC (UNBC) whose contract expired on June 30, served 72-hour
strike notice on November 4 and initiated strike action on November 7.
Negotiations for a new contract began on March 5, but were not
progressing despite an 84 per cent strike mandate and subsequent
mediation efforts. The nearly 350 Faculty Association members include
tenured and tenure-track faculty, term and sessional instructors,
librarians, and lab instructors.
A central issue in the negotiations is bringing an
end to the substantial discrepancy in salary structure and compensation
received by UNBC faculty members in comparison to professors at other
Canadian universities with UNBC currently ranking 98 out of 100,
according to Faculty Association President Stephen Rader. Rader further
points out that efforts to fix the salary structure have been ongoing
for many years, including through a strike during the last round of
negotiations in 2015. Failure to address this discrepancy is not only
of concern to current UNBC faculty members, but is also an impediment
to hiring good quality new faculty members as an increasing number of
retirements take place over the next 5 to 10 years.
Professors' salaries are not the only issue. Of
equal concern is compensation for librarians, lab instructors and those
in precarious part-time and term contract positions -- a growing
component of university academic staff across Canada which makes it
increasingly difficult for workers to plan and meet the needs of
themselves and their families.
 UNBCFA members
have also made it clear that they will never agree to concessions
proposed by the administration that would change crucial collegial
governance language "in exchange" for addressing the salary issues
and/or the precarity concerns of part time and contracted members. As
pointed out in the UNBCFA Bargaining
Bulletin #14: "The Employer has tabled a number of
proposals on matters such as tenure that are crucial to the way
universities traditionally operate. These proposals are unacceptable to
the Faculty Association because they would diminish collegial
governance and would make UNBC an unattractive place for faculty to
work -- even if our salaries were higher."
The bulletin continues: "On the issue of salaries,
the parties may be converging, albeit slowly. The Faculty Association
has been working on the salary issue for the better part of a decade,
through three rounds of bargaining, two arbitrations, and a strike. All
our resolve has been and is directed towards one goal: a settlement
that will ensure serene labour relations at UNBC for the foreseeable
future. The UNBCFA is eager to achieve a Collective Agreement that
provides as much assurance as possible that students, faculty, and
staff three years from now will not face the kind of uncertainty -- or
job action -- that they do now."
Both sides returned to the bargaining table on
November 12 and exchanges continued off and on all week. After
negotiations broke down over the weekend of November 23-24 the Faculty
Association requested that the Minister of Labour appoint a mediator, a
request that was supported by the university. Late in the day on
November 26 the government announced that a special mediator will be
appointed.
 
Rally held the day before the faculty strike
began, November 6, 2019.
Support for the UNBCFA is widespread and visible
on the picket lines in Prince George and Terrace and at regional sites
in Quesnel and Vancouver. Colleagues from CUPE locals representing
support staff and teaching assistants and food services staff in UNITE
HERE Local 40 have been walking the lines with Faculty Association
members since day one of the strike. Union and community members from
Prince George and across the province have shown their support by
joining pickets and rallies, writing letters to the UNBC administration
and Board of Governors, making donations and spreading the word about
the issues the Faculty Association is determined to have addressed.
Despite the challenges they face in terms of their
studies, students have been visible in their support of Faculty
Association members -- organizing marches, joining the picket lines and
expressing their concerns to the UNBC administration. One example is a
recent letter to the Board of Governors and UNBC President from the
graduate and undergraduate students who serve as UNBC Research
Ambassadors. In part they state: "We've witnessed first-hand how deeply
faculty and staff at UNBC love and promote our university and
community.... We are devastated to learn of the inequitable treatment
of faculty, instructors and staff .... We are disappointed that the
UNBC Administration is not upholding the values ... that originally
attracted us to choosing this educational establishment and acting as
student leaders through the Research Ambassadors program.... We will
continue to abstain from all Research Ambassador activities to
demonstrate our solidarity with the Faculty Association."
Support and solidarity from the Canadian
Association of University Teachers and faculty unions across the
country has also been significant including financial assistance,
messages of solidarity, and letters to the UNBC administration. One
such letter to the Chair of the UNBC Board of Governors, from the
Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations states, in
part: "As evidenced by a variety of rankings, UNBC faculty are amongst
the most accomplished and dedicated in the country, yet their pay
consistently ranks amongst the worst in the country. It is simply
unacceptable that the administration would continue to attempt to
leverage concessions from librarians and precarious contract faculty in
exchange for the most modest of wage adjustments. It is also alarming
that the administration is asking for concessions on collegial
governance in exchange for their wage proposal."
Support from across the country was underlined
with the arrival of "flying pickets" from 15 post-secondary
institutions from as far away as Memorial University in Newfoundland
and Labrador joining the picket lines and a noon hour rally at UNBC on
Friday, November 15.
Faculty are joined on the picket line by UNBC support staff.
Food services workers show their support for striking UNBC faculty.
- Ontario Confederation of
University Faculty Associations -
I am writing today, on behalf of 17,000 university
faculty and academic librarians at our 30 member associations, to
implore you to return to the table and negotiate a collective agreement
in good faith with the UNBC Faculty Association. It is also time for
the Board of Governors to exercise some leadership in moving beyond the
toxic labour relations environment that has plagued UNBC in recent
years.
Faculty at UNBC are consistently faced with an
administration that is openly hostile to faculty and regularly
misunderstands and insults the role of faculty at a research
university. Two strikes in less than five years speaks to a deeply
dysfunctional relationship that is undermining the reputation of UNBC.
As evidenced by a variety of rankings, UNBC faculty are amongst the
most accomplished and dedicated in the country yet their pay
consistently ranks amongst the worst in the country. It is simply
unacceptable that the administration would continue to attempt to
leverage concessions from librarians and precarious contract faculty in
exchange for the most modest of wage adjustments. It is also alarming
that the administration is asking for concessions on collegial
governance in exchange for their wage proposal. Indeed, the core
problem at UNBC is a lack of meaningful collegial governance and any
step backward on that front must be rejected.
Faculty across Ontario will stand in solidarity
with our colleagues at UNBC until they achieve a fair settlement. It is
time for the Board of Governors at UNBC to show some leadership and
direct the administration bargaining team to return to the table and
end this dispute.
Yours Sincerely,
Rahul Sapra
President, OCUFA
Quebec Public Sector
Negotiations
- Interview, Jeff Begley,
President, Federation of Health and
Social Services (FSSS-CSN) -
Public sector workers march in Quebec city, October 30, 2019, as they
submit their contract demands to the Quebec government.
Quebec's 500,000 or so public sector workers are
beginning negotiations for the renewal of their collective agreements,
which expire on March 31, 2020. The unions representing them have put
forward their cross-sectoral demands (wages, pension plans, etc.) and
their sectoral demands which pertain to the working conditions of
specific categories of workers. Under the hoax of ensuring the health
of public finances, the Quebec government has declared that it is
preparing to continue to impose the anti-social austerity agenda that
has proven to be so disastrous for the working conditions of public
sector employees and consequently, for the delivery of public services.
This is anathema to the workers who are preparing to step up their
struggle for their rights.
Workers' Forum fully supports
the fight of the public sector workers for wages and working conditions
that they deem adequate to live a decent life, to be able to keep and
attract public sector employees and to deliver services in a dignified
and humane manner. This struggle is being waged directly in the field
of public opinion and Workers'
Forum is placing its pages at its disposal. In this issue,
we are publishing an interview with Jeff Begley, President of the
Federation of Health and Social Services (FSSS-CSN), which has
approximately 110,000 members, 80 per cent of whom are women.
***
Workers' Forum:
As public sector negotiations begin in Quebec, what are the main
concerns of workers in the sector at this time?
Jeff Begley:
First, the last reform of former Liberal government Health and Social
Services Minister Gaétan Barrette has taken its toll and
will continue to do so for a long time to come.[1] The creation of
mega-institutions has hurt services as well as the network, and the
deterioration of services is having a major impact on the people
delivering services, who are our members. The problem of health and
safety, of issues of mental health, has skyrocketed since the beginning
of the reform. It is causing serious problems within all the conditions
existing in the system.
For example, since the beginning of the reform,
salary-insurance claims for sick leave have increased by 25 per cent.
That's huge! Over the past year the claims have not decreased. We don't
have the numbers yet for the year, but the claims are continuing. This
is very disturbing. It not only costs a fortune in terms of money, but
also in terms of the huge human cost on the health of our workers. It's
a revolving wheel. The more the conditions deteriorate, the more our
members fall ill.
Things need to change significantly during the
upcoming negotiation, and quickly, otherwise the situation will only
further erode.
The labour shortage is an added factor because it
exists in health as it does elsewhere, which is new in terms of the
health care sector. Ten years ago, Human Resources managers had a file
full of resumés that they had not responded to and now
they're not able to find people.
And, of course, ever since the last negotiation,
our members are under the impression that the last time they won the
negotiation was in 1999. That means that for 20 years now our
conditions have been worsening.
These are the main factors causing the disarray
amongst our members, in addition to the wage issue. It's crucial that
with the next negotiation, our members are able to say they have
achieved a substantial improvement in their living and working
conditions.
WF: What's
the link between the Barrette reform and the problems you have just
mentioned?
JB: Here's
an example. Previously, for instance, in a Residential and Long-Term
Care Centre (CHSLD), when there was a problem at the level of
attendants, when we needed more of them for example, we had a Board of
Directors responsible for 400-500 residents, and maybe for 100-120-130
employees, and in the case of very large CHSLDs, the number of
employees could reach about 400. There was a Board of Directors, which
met every month to address the problems of the CHSLD, which could
foresee that certain problems may arise, whether related to food
services, attendants, nurses, or management. There was pressure on the
Board to deal with these problems before they became too big or too
serious, to ensure the well-being of employees and patients.
Now the CHSLD, along with all the other CHSLDs in
the region, the local health care community service centres (CLSCs) as
well as the youth centres, the rehabilitation centres for the
intellectually handicapped and the hospitals have all been somewhat
merged into a mega-institution. Within such conditions, you're lucky if
you have 10 minutes a year to talk about a problem in a CHSLD.
In addition, employers are completely lost. If we
ask one of our members who their boss is, in many cases if you're not
working at the establishment's head office, you never see him or her.
We call a number and hope that the message was received. The problem is
even bigger in the regions, where the distances between the
establishment's components and head office are even larger. It's a
serious problem, both for the employee and for the union. The union is
faced with the distress of the person not receiving the services
needed, not knowing how to address that need. This has a very negative
impact on the public and on employees. This problem exists everywhere
in Quebec, in the major centres and in the regions. We undertook a tour
across Quebec and the situation exists everywhere, irrespective of the
service. Accountability has been shifted so far away from where the
service is provided that it has created a crisis of accountability
within the system, a general disarray. Everyone is paying for it.
WF: What
about the issue of wages?
JB: Wages
have deteriorated significantly over the years. The cost of living has
greatly exceeded our wages over the last 20 years. That's why we have
tabled a demand for a fixed wage increase amount for the first year of
the contract. Although the amount is significant for people who are
better paid, it is even more significant for low earners. We are asking
for a fixed increase of $ 3 per hour in the first year, for all our
members. Three dollars the first year on average represents a little
more than a 9 per cent increase, but for low wage earners it represents
something like 20 per cent.
WF: How do
you envisage the upcoming period as negotiations begin?
JB: We
undertook a tour of our members in order to work out our demands. Now
that we have tabled them, we are embarking on another tour to have them
take root and discuss what's required to push them forward.
Expectations are very high among our members. The
government has announced that it will offer us only the equivalent of
the cost of living, and a little more for patient attendants and the
lowest paid teachers. We hope that this is just posturing at the
beginning of negotiations, to position itself in relation to public
opinion and that at the bargaining table the government will become
serious. Otherwise, if the government really wants to limit us to
inflation, we will tell our members that we need to mobilize ourselves
more than we have done in recent years.
In our opinion, if the Coalition Avenir
Québec won the Quebec election in October 2018, it's because
people were disgusted with the Barrette reform in health care and with
the situation prevailing in the schools. The Legault government needs
to recognize that.
Of course if the government puts into practice
what it has announced for health care attendants and teachers, it will
not be up to the mark with what these employees need. As for the other
categories of workers, they will definitely not accept being limited to
inflation.
In addition, the government has not said a word
about the conditions for the delivery of services, about working
conditions.
As far as I know, all the unions involved in these
negotiations have tabled their demands. We expect a response from the
government before the holidays.
It is certain that a very significant move is
going to be needed to improve conditions in the public services.
Note
1. The
main component of what has been called the Barrette reform, named after
former Minister of Health and Social Services Gaetan Barrette, was the
adoption in 2015 of Bill 10 by the Liberal government which
restructured health services. The legislation created mega-institutions
that sometimes cover entire regions, whose boards of directors are
essentially appointed by the Minister of Health and Social Services and
accountable to the Minister. The law eliminated the intermediate levels
of decision-making that existed within the network, thereby further
distancing the voices of workers, those who make the system work, which
are often criminalized.
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