By Kimball Cariou
AFTER VOTING DOWN major concessions in pay and working conditions, thousands of British Columbia health care workers are now becoming victims of the government's privatisation drive.
The stage was set for this attack in January 2002, when the Campbell Liberals passed Bill 29. The Health and Social Services Improvement Act ripped up collective agreement rights and opened the door to contracting out and privatization of services in long term care and acute care hospitals. Eighteen months later, an estimated 20,000 employees, mostly members of the Hospital Employees' Union, are facing the loss of their jobs, and residents of these facilities fear a sharp decline in their living conditions.
About 200 union supporters and family members rallied on June 14 in solidarity with care aides about to lose their jobs at Willingdon Park long-term care hospital in Burnaby, the first such facility in B.C. to contract out seniors' personal care. Since receiving their layoff notices, the Hospital Employees' Union members at Willingdon have been fighting hard to save their jobs.
The laid-off workers were at Burnaby municipal council on June 11, to present a 10,000-name petition protesting the facility's decision to privatize health care work.
"What's happening at Willingdon Park hospital is wrong. It's putting profit ahead of people," said Sarjit Dhillon, who has worked at the hospital for 23 years. "We ask that you support us as we fight for our seniors and for decently paid, community-supporting jobs."
Barb Bardua, a care aide at Willingdon Park for 17 years, said that a private company won't be able to deliver consistent care, and that the relationship care aides now have with the nursing team will be ruptured "because care aides from the private company will be directed by their agency."
Raj Atwal, the local HEU chair, who has worked for 16 years at the facility, pointed out that residents will lose the trusted relationships they have with the 35 regular and 20 casual care aides who will work their last shifts on June 27.
The Burnaby Council agreed to close the block in front of Willingdon Park hospital for the June 14 rally, and will consider setting up a committee to monitor the effects of privatizated health care in Burnaby.
In another case, Sunset Lodge, a non-profit long-term care home operated by the Salvation Army in Victoria, is contracting out all services provided by unionized employees to a private for-profit company.
Sixty-four permanent employees at the 108?bed facility were terminated on June 10. These include RN's, LPN's, care and activity aides, social workers, cooks, food service and maintenance workers, housekeepers and clerical support staff. Over 90% are women, the majority of whom have worked at the Lodge for over 10 years, and some as long as 24 years.
HEU members picketed a Vancouver convention of the Salvation Army on June 20, pointing out that the organization is not being forced to privatize the lodge and could choose another alternative.
Most recently, Point Grey Private Hospital in Vancouver gave layoff notices to more than two dozen care aides on June 19, just days after the Labour Relations Board found their employer guilty of unfair labour practices.
In a June 16 ruling, the B.C. LRB found that the facility's operator and part owner, Maureen McIntosh, violated the labour code by suggesting to employees that they decertify or join a "Christian" union in order to maintain their wages and benefits.
The LRB ruled that McIntosh interfered in the administration of a trade union and that her actions were an attempt to compel or induce workers from continuing to be members of a trade union. The facility was ordered to post the decision in the workplace.
HEU spokesperson Zorica Bosancic says Bill 29 has invited health employers to turn back the clock on workers' rights.
"Labour relations in B.C.'s health care system today is straight out of the thirties," says Bosancic. "Employers can intimidate and coerce workers with few consequences and then throw them out of work under cover of government legislation tearing up their contracts."
The four dozen seniors at Point Grey will lose caregivers who have provided the bulk of their personal care, in some cases for more than twenty years. McIntosh contracted out housekeeping, laundry and dietary work at Point Grey last year.
Another alarming development is a move by the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority to privatize thousands of surgical procedures.
The B.C. Health Coalition has called on Health Services Minister Colin Hansen to stop the VCHA's plans to contract out publicly insured surgeries, and to hold public hearings on health privatization.
Coalition coordinator Terrie Hendrickson said, "Privatizing surgical services has never been on the agenda of a public meeting of this health authority's board and these plans do not appear in the authority's three-year redesign plan. It's outrageous that a government that promised to be the most open and accountable in the country has been working secretly to sell off public health care services."
The VCHA plans to privatize up to 3,200 day surgeries at Richmond Hospital, despite evidence that this could put patients at risk and increase costs to taxpayers.
The Health Coalition warns that sending these procedures to private clinics violates the Canada Health Act. It plans to file a complaint with Health Canada about the proposal.
(This article is from the July 1-31/2003 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, Canada, V5L 3J1.)