Third week of community health bargaining concludes

Unions seek agreement on health and safety and scheduling

The third week of Community Health bargaining ended today after three days of meetings between the Community Bargaining Association (CBA) and the Health Employers Association of BC.

The CBA tabled proposals on occupational health and safety, which included specific proposals on aggressive behaviour, investigation of accidents and working alone or in isolation and communicable diseases.

The unions also tabled proposals aimed at reducing the time it takes to process grievances and discussed the issue of scheduling community health workers.

The employers tabled housekeeping proposals, in addition to housekeeping proposals previously tabled by the CBA. The parties agreed to some of these proposals this week.

“Talks are slow and we are anxious to receive responses from the employers,” says BCGEU president Darryl Walker. 

“We are committed to negotiating a fair and reasonable collective agreement for our members and we have presented proposals to deal with longstanding workplace issues.”

“We tabled health and safety issues early because it is an important issue to our members,”  said Carla Dempsey, chair of the BCGEU Community Health component.

“The committee is looking forward to the employers’ quick and positive response to these initiatives.”

Talks are scheduled to continue for two more weeks in Vancouver with additional sessions scheduled through to the end of March.

The Community Bargaining Association represents over 14,000 members, the majority of whom are represented by the BCGEU.  Other Unions at the table are UFCW, HEU, CUPE, HSA, and USWA.

Please visit our Bargaining 2012 web page for bargaining updates.

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