BURNABY—Bargaining for the new Health Science Professional collective agreement, which covers 19,500 workers in B.C. including approximately 1,000 CUPE members, has begun.
On Wednesday (March 2), representatives from the Health Employers Association of BC (HEABC) sat down with the Health Science Professionals Bargaining Association (HSPBA) Committee, a team including professional negotiators, labour relations specialists and rank and file union members elected by their peers from around the province.
The bargaining committee is guided by recommendations voted on by members at a bargaining proposal committee meeting held last November, and the front-line members participating on the committee bring direct experience of the challenges facing health science professionals at this time.
Their focus is on the following:
- Recruitment: without enough people on the multidisciplinary health care team, the crushing workload just is not sustainable.
- Retention: without the right conditions, we can’t hang onto the people we need to deliver consistently excellent service.
- Respect: as specialized health care professionals, the contributions health science professionals make must be understood and recognized.
- Responsibility: there is no health care without specialized health care professionals. Health science professionals do not carry that burden of responsibility lightly and must be recognized for the role they play on the health care team.
- Resilience: health science professionals need support for their physical and mental well-being to be able to go back shift after shift to do what they are trained to do – and passionate about doing.