The Health Employers’ Association of BC (HEABC) tabled their initial wage proposal for the Community Health agreement, and we are deeply disappointed. We need a significant investment in front-line workers to address the staffing crisis in community health and we won’t accept anything less.
We expect challenging monetary negotiations, but the last weeks of bargaining have shown us that when we stand together, with your support, we can achieve important improvements for our sector.
These past weeks we addressed a number of key areas including overtime, harassment, and portability of seniority. At the table we shared personal stories from your workplaces, and made it impossible for the employer to ignore the issues you face on daily basis and the deteriorating state of our sector. Thanks to all of you who took the time to share your personal stories with us.
We’ve heard from you that you’ve had to choose at times between caring for your children or your clients because of forced overtime due to short staffing. You told us that many community health workers are forced to put yourselves at risk, driving at unsafe speeds, to stick to an unrealistic schedule. Some of you are losing a decade or more of seniority when you apply for a new position—even when it is with the same employer.
There are countless stories, and the common theme is that workers in the community health sector have been overworked, underpaid and disrespected for too long. With your help, we’ve moved the employer on some of our top issues but there is still a lot of work to do. We will all need to do more.
We will be calling on you to talk to your coworkers and ensure that they are receiving updates and ready to act when it’s time to apply more pressure to the employer. We’ll be back at the bargaining table in April and will keep you updated. In the meantime, if you need to update your contact information, please visit this link: https://forms.office.com/r/xBwFjh3WF8.
In solidarity,
Your Community Bargaining Association