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Good News in Workers' Fights in Defence of Their Rights Hospital Employees' Union in BC Announces VictoryThe Hospital Employees' Union (HEU) announced a victory on August 30 in the long fight of hospital workers to reverse the privatization of hospital cleaning and food services work. More than 4,000 hospital workers will return to employment with the BC Health Authorities.
After the government cleared the way for privatization under its rule of law and the contracts with the cartels were signed, all service workers affected found themselves without employment. HEU writes, "Thousands of health care workers -- mostly women -- were fired as health authorities contracted out hospital services. Those workers were invited to reapply for their jobs at half the wages by the corporations that won lucrative service contracts." Seven global cartels today buy the capacity to work of 4,000 regular and casual hospital service workers. The cartels have 21 commercial contracts with Vancouver Coastal Health, Vancouver Island Health, Fraser Health and the Provincial Health Services authorities. The workers have reorganized themselves within the HEU and have waged a tireless struggle to both improve their wages and working conditions and to reverse the privatization. Despite their efforts to organize and defend themselves, at this time their wages in equivalent dollars are lower than 18 years ago during the SARS epidemic. The government and health authorities admit that the low wages and mostly irregular precarious working conditions of hospital service workers are an impediment to hiring and retaining workers. This problem has become worse during the pandemic and could be a reason prompting the ruling elite to reverse the privatization at this time.
The workers, as employees of the Health Authorities, will be covered by the existing collective agreement that covers food service and housekeeping workers throughout the province whose jobs were not contracted out. The Marxist-Leninist Party of Canada (MLPC) congratulates the service workers and their union HEU for winning this round against the anti-social offensive which opens a path to improve their wages and working conditions. The attack on hospital workers under the neo-liberal anti-social offensive holds many lessons for workers generally. Importantly, it highlights the necessity for workers to develop their own independent stands which favour them and know that their security lies in the fight for the rights of all! The program to Stop Paying the Rich! Increase Funding for Social Programs! is crucial today as cartel parties are vying to form the government at the federal level in favour of the likes of the seven global cartels which have been making a killing in BC's health care sector. |
To
pay the rich, the BC Liberal government in 2002 privatized certain
hospital services, handing the work to global cartels as lucrative
contracts. To prepare the legal provisions to privatize the hospital
work, the BC government of the day introduced legislation to overturn
health care workers' collective agreements containing job security
provisions and to remove the workers from any protection from
provincial labour laws that could have prevented or blunted the
negative impact of privatization.
HEU
says it "reached an agreement with public health employers and
government earlier this year on a labour adjustment framework for the
transfer of workers to health authorities." It says bringing the
workers back as government employees will immediately raise their wages
and "improve recruitment and retention rates for these critical
jobs, and will ensure greater worker and patient safety."
