And another thing…
Am I the only one that thinks the s*** is but one small inch away from the fan on this whole HEU strike thing. Whether you like unions or not (full disclosure: I like them in principal, but they tend to irritate me in practise), I think it’s hard to imagine somebody couldn’t see how people might not get fired up at legislating them back to work with a 11% pay cut, longer hours, no job security, and the pay cut possibly retroactive to April 1st. So now the support strikes are beginning, and who knows who’ll join in the act. Could be exciting times! I wish I could go on a support strike, I’d like to sit outside with my ‘coffee’ on a day like today.
It could all peter out into nothing though.
45 comments Thursday 29 Apr 2004 | SlantyOD | SlantyNet - General
Work has been a f-ing nightmare with all this stuff.
my dad is an HEU member, working at both VGH and Richmond .. he’s not in a terrible position, as i think he works more for fun than for income.
in my own day job however (all i do is look at long term disability claims for healthcare workers) i’d agree with both Bard and OD in that order .. it’s a nightmare, and $#!t will probably get worse.
even worse .. no union is safe from this government .. in recent memory, CUPE, BCNU, BCTF, BCGEU and now HEU all pissed. CUPE got 0%, 0%, 0%, i think BCGEU recently also had a rollback of some kind.
that being said .. some HEU members get paid a LOT to mop, sweep, do laundry. some HEU positions (patient care, technical positions, etc) are paid a little more realistically with regards to wages.
i dont really know where i’m going with this rant, but it’s all crazy. and that’s all i have to say about that.
Bruticus sums it up pretty good. It’s plain crazy. The problem is that the HEU covers almost all hospital workers except nurses and physicians. Now, for the janitor that sweeps/cleans the floor, their wage is quite high compared to market price. But the legislation also covers other workers as well who aren’t usually heard about in the news. Over in Nanaimo Hospital, the electricians, plumbers, and other trades people are also covered by this legislation. This means that the government is going to hit them with a 15% cutback when these individuals have undergone many years of trade training including apprenticeships and in the private sector would be making more than they currently do in the hospital. They tend to work at the hospital because they like the job security but considering how there is a labour shortage out there right now, if they quit, then the hospital can’t run no matter how much the government talks about savings.
Here are 2 more points to ponder:
1. The contracted out jobs have recently organized themselves into unions and have joined the CAW and IWA. These unions are even more fiesty than HEU. Guess what’s going to happen in 2 years when the contracted contracts run out. Strike for pay raise? You bet, plus the government won’t be able to legislate them back because they contracted out the jobs to private enterprise. Talk about getting bit in the fucking ass.
2. How can hospital administrators work the circuit so that their contracts give them 300,000 to 400,000 dollars in severance pay when they “retire” after 2 years of doing their job only to be “re-hired” as “consultants” to the same or another hospital and still collect severance. Seems a bit like Campbell’s cronies are in the honey pot.
Oh and by the 11pm global news report, CUPE is going to on strike 15,000 to 25,000 members tomorrow in protest. This means schools and city halls shut down. Plus, the Ferry workers are deciding if they will join in. Fuck this is nuts.
So far, ferry workers delayed ferries for 30 minutes this morning, school in Prince George (?) have been shut down, and the dam workers are still off the job. Anything else?
I’m actually surprised as hell the buses are running. I thought Translink had some issues with a fairly strong union, quite willing to walk out on wildcat strikes.
LRB told the HEU to go back to work. HEU has said no. Heh heh.
Kelowna HEU withdrew their essential services. Wow.
Vancouver City Outside workers are off…no garbage collection, etc. today
Seems the Ferries are running again. Wonder if anyone will notice the confusion since the Ferries are oftn confused.
some Victoria public institutions were picketed.
someone please tell me that these jackasses aren’t going to be reelected.
What? They withdrew their ESSENTIAL services? Whoa, that’s pretty crazy. SlantyOJ, has the wife heard anything about what she’s doing (if anything?)
Ok, how is getting paid $19.00 an hour to clean a hospital a LOT of money. These are suppose to be jobs for adults. Jobs for adults means that you have to pay them adult salaries. So what is that, $39,500 a year? You can’t even buy a port a john to live in within an hour of Vancouver with that wage. So what is that after taxes: $31,000. Minus rent: $23,000.
I am not saying that is a bad wage. I think $19.00 and hour is pretty good for cleaing shit and blood off the walls. Part of the job of a union is to get adults adult wages for their services. How could some one expect to be able to raise a family on $16.00 an hour?
And there are the people that I want to kill that point out: “but students can go to school and survive on $8.00 an hour.” One: Survive is not living. Two: $8.00 an hour plus student loans and what ever they can get from mommy and daddy and living in some closet for $350.00 a month.
I think that people get too twisted out of shape about the wage that some one pushing a broom gets.
My rant over.
Ciao
Wolf
I think _you_ get paid too much.
8: at the end of all this, who knows what the next provincial election will bring… BC politics is a joke. imo, the only reason the current government was elected was under protest with the previous government’s antics. it’ll be interesting.
i have received no phone calls from employers or co-ordinators at any HEU facilities; a co-worker has indicated to me that she received a message from a benefits co-ordinator, who stated she would be working in the kitchen all day, but feel free to leave voice mail!
how’s everyone’s desk today? at least if you’re reading this, you’re probably not serving up lunch at the hospital cafeteria.
Poor Kate’s out at UBC right now, and I think she’s in Food Services. I say poor Kate, but then I know what she’s going to be earning per hour, and let me tell you it’s more than the current workers earn..
Here we go:
In Vancouver: City hall shut down, garbage collection, street maintenance and sewer services all shut down. Possibly schools closing on Monday, definitely no school buses.
Victoria: Schools shut. Landfill, city hall and some recreation centers closed.
Kelowna (and possibly the rest of the Okanagan): Wildcat strikes.
Prince George: the same as Victoria, but the schools maybe closing on Monday.
Way to go Liberals! You’ve handled this one really well.. =)
I seriously wish I could go on strike..
Oh, sorry, here’s the source.
And on a final note, the local CBC site is the best site I’ve found for all things strike related.
People, like myself, were packing the harbourlynx ferry to get home in case the ferry system totally shuts down. This being said, I have no idea where the hell I am supposed to work on Monday. All the secretaries that do the scheduling for VGH haven’t crossed the pickets and I have no contact to figure out what I am doing. Guess I will fall back to Plan B: drink beer in my ginch all day long.
from a distance, all this sounds very exciting. it’s like france, when the whole country goes on strike at once.
I wonder if the meter maids are out in full force?
19: But who will give me a parking ticket?? Won’t somebody think of the lost revenues!?!
Man, I wish I could go on strike. Me, a lawn chair, a commi sign held lazily in my left hand as I use my right to bring beer to my sun parched lips. Hmmm, striking. Sounds so good right now. Well, actually the beer. The beer and the sun sounds good. Flinging my body in front of cars and spitting on their hoods doesn’t sound so good. So maybe striking really is not for me.
What the hell am I talking about?? Getting drunk and jumping up and down on cars is EXACTLY what I am about. Fuck, I have to get me into a few unions that are going to go on strike.
Ciao
Wolf
If you combine 19 and 21, you could be drinking beer and doing the meter maid on the hood of cars…
21: Let’s form a union. We’ll strike in David Lam park for decreased beer prices, and increased bandwidth for porn downloading.
wouldn’t be a problem down here, i tell you. in some hosipitals even the nurses aren’t unionized.
Rest of Slanty can go on a sympathy strike?
And if you combine 18, 19 and 21 you could be drinking beer and doing FRENCH meter maids on the hoods of cars. Now THAT is what I am talking about.
“Voulez-vous coucher avec moi ce soir ?
Voulez-vous coucher avec moi ?
Kitchi kitchi ya ya da da
Kitchi kitchi ya ya di”
Ok, fucking WHOA! Those beers I had at lunch are affecting me more than I thought.
Who needs porn when you have the slanty union representing you…collective bargaining for french meter maids on car hoods…imagine the strike we would have if they legislated us with the cutback to surrey girls on plastic lawn table…
27. I didn’t know the Penthouse serves lunch!
As per http://www.cknw.com:
“Campbell says “the first thing is they should stop breaking the law. They should come back to the table and we should work through this.” Campbell says the law is in place to protect patients and students.”
Wow, that’s like, so motivating. What stunning charisma. The beers he had at lunch really helped his speech.
Students?
Seems to me that the liberals have really pissed off some people. This could really shut down our province next week. If I was a business, I certainly would be looking elsewhere for setting up shop.
31: labour students? or polisci students?
Does anyone have a link to a site that explains the justification for the strike? It seems to me everyone just bitches “the government sucks” all the time, blah blah blah. Financial responsibility’s a bitch but we?ve got to deal with it. I mean if I was in the union I?d be complaining and out their striking for sure, things are getting worse for them? but that?s the economic reality. Lump it or leave it?
Whoa, this could be a wild ride. Kate’s pottery class just got cancelled due to the ‘General Strike.’
From http://www.cknw.com:
Monday walkouts which may affect you:
CONFIRMED:
Translink: no bus, Seabus, West Vancouver Blue Bus or SkyTrain service. Translink says West Cost Express is expected to operate at this point, BUT THAT COULD CHANGE. West Coast Express passengers are advised to check Translink website: http://www.translink.bc.ca – or check with this radio station for updates Monday morning.
BC Teachers Federation (BCTF): no public school services
Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) BC: 70,000 members province-wide to walk out, affecting schools, colleges, universities, city halls, municipal services, and permit/licensing offices.
UNCONFIRMED, BUT POSSIBLE:
BC Ferries: no walkouts planned, but workers may not cross HEU picket lines, which could disrupt service
IWA: no confirmation, but sources say coastal forestry sector to walk out Monday, followed by the north on Tuesday and the interior on Wednesday
B.C. Hydro: no confirmation that union members plan to walk out, but some have done so already. However Hydro will go before Labour Relations Board on Monday to get injunction against further employee wildcat strikes.
BC Government and Service Employees Union (BCGEU): says some action will take place, but hasn’t confirmed what exactly will happen.
BC Rail: Council of Trade Unions at BC Rail not promising striking workers will be back on the job Monday. The Council says it doesn’t know for sure what will happen Monday.
**This is all in addition to the job action already underway by the Hospital Employees Union, affecting elective surgeries, diagnostic procedures, and clinic visits throughout B.C.**
This story is interesting about the emerg being essentially deserted. Further evidence for the fact known to most healthcare professionals that the majority of emerg visists aren’t truly emergencies.
I’m still looking for this: “Does anyone have a link to a a site that explains the justification for the strike?”
This press release from the HEU seems to say it’s because they haven’t had a contract since January, and the government has canned 2,500 people since then. So basically they were asking the government to stop firing people until they got a contract in place (after which presumably they wouldn’t be able to fire people =).
When they have things like this “More than 2,500 workers have received layoff notices since bargaining began in early January and 6,000 workers have already lost their jobs to contracting out” in their own press releases I find it hard to support their cause. How is that different from when 2D was laid off? Why should I feel worse for the HEU members than Dan?
You shouldn’t, but most people don’t view getting laid off as a good thing like Dan does. Are you saying you have no sympathy for people that lose their jobs? I would have thought you of all people would have sympathy, how many times have you been fired? 15? =)
Getting laid off is different than contracting out. When you get laid off, it is presumably because their is not enough money or need for your job anymore. Contracting out is when they lay you off so they can hire someone else to do your job because it still needs doing.
40: no disrespect to Dan (i’ve been laid off too, but without severance or more than 30 minutes notice), but most HEU members are in a much different position than Dan was. Or me or you for that matter. some HEU members have a reasonable level of education, but most have very little in the way of education, training, experience. many HEU members have less than a high school education from another non-english speaking country. and thus, job prospects for these folk are fairly bleak, were it not for their own jobs.
jobs being contracted out to $10/hr amounts to less than half of what many HEU members are currently making, and effectively, they many members would be far below the poverty line.
so it’s find to say “love your job or leave it” but if your only skill and only experience for the last 20 years is wiping up other people’s feces, it’d be more than a challenge to find other gainful employment.
43: Feel free to disrepect Dan as freely and as often as possible.
43: I don’t get the argument that education should make a difference. Why should it be ok to lay off someone whos got an education but not someone who doesn’t?