By Grant Warkentin
BC nurses are poised to strike, after rejecting a tentative agreement reached between the Nurses’ Bargaining Association (NBA) and health employers.
“This is fundamentally a conversation about priorities,” said BC Nurses Union (BCNU) President Adriane Gear in a statement. “Nurses want to know why the health authorities continue to spend millions of dollars on costly short-term staffing solutions, while the nurses who are here for the long-term struggling with workload pressures, unsafe working conditions and staffing shortages are being told the cupboards are empty.”
The union says the tentative agreement didn’t go far enough with proposals for a general wage increase, and earlier this month the union warned that members had voted more than two-thirds in favour of rejecting the tentative agreement. Now it says if it doesn’t get a better offer, nurses could start job action later this week.
“This is not a step BC nurses want to take,” says NBA chief negotiator and BCNU CEO Jim Gould. “However, many have reached the point where they feel they have no choice but to shine a light on the realities they face every day while caring for British Columbians in crowded hospitals, under-staffed long-term care facilities, community health settings and patient’s homes across the province.”
BCNU says it remains committed to reaching a negotiated agreement.
Between May 8-11, 50,850 nurses participated in a province-wide strike vote, voting 98.2 percent in favour of job action. The threat of strike action led to a tentative agreement reached May 22, which was rejected in June by 67 percent of members.
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