BCGEU president Stephanie Smith, treasurer Paul Finch and the entire Provincial Executive would like to wish our 80,000 members and their families a happy and festive holiday season!

Please note that all BCGEU offices will be closed for the holidays.

BCGEU offices around the province will be closed at 1:00pm on December 24, 2019 and will reopen on January 2, 2020 at 8:30am.

If you are a BCGEU member and need emergency support at your worksite, please contact your union steward.

Media inquiries can be directed to Aaron Donovan, Coordinator - Research and Interactive Services, at aaron.donovan@bcgeu.ca or 604 306-9122.

Facilities related emergencies can be directed to Ryan Schmid at 778-870-7877.

Happy holidays!

BCUWU/MoveUP

On behalf of members employed by Acciona Infrastructure Maintenance Inc., the BC Government & Service Employees' Union (BCGEU) is calling on the company to ensure they meet the highway maintenance standards agreed to in their 10-year contract with the provincial government. This follows an incident last week in Cherryville B.C. where a school bus became stuck in a ditch due to snowy road conditions.

"Highway maintenance employees are some of the most conscientious people that care for the safety of all stakeholders on B.C. highways," says BCGEU president Stephanie Smith. "They have done so for decades and will continue to do their best with the tools they are given."

In 2017 a landmark successorship agreement was reached to ensure the retention of over 2,000 experienced workers to maintain roads and bridges throughout British Columbia. When Acciona was awarded two new maintenance contracts in the Okanagan earlier this spring, they were required to honour the labour agreements already bargained with existing workers. This ensured that their staff had decades of experience and knowledge of what it takes to keep roads safe in their region.

"When an incident or accident occurs, it's emotional for all of us working on B.C. roads," says BCGEU operational services component vice president Rory Smith. "Our members continue to strive to provide their expertise and identify opportunities for continuous improvement."

Moving forward, the union will continue to work with members to ensure they are treated with respect by their employer and will be monitoring the situation in the Okanagan.

The Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure also has staff monitoring standards in each of the 28 service areas in B.C.'s highway maintenance system, and many times they are working through a storm event to monitor the level of performance of the contractor. In follow up to the concerns in Cherryville, the Ministry has advised that they are meeting with Acciona and the local school district.

The BCGEU encourages all travellers to drive safely as they head out on the roads this holiday season and that motorists ensure they have good winter tires, adjust their speed to conditions and check DriveBC before they head out.

The BCGEU is one of the largest unions in B.C. representing 80,000 members. The operational services component represents 2,200 private sector highway workers and over 120 members employed at Acciona Infrastructure Maintenance Inc.

For more information contact: Bronwen Barnett, BCGEU Communications, at communications@bcgeu.ca

UWU/MoveUP

WHAT: After issuing a 72-hour strike notice on Friday of last week, 14 members of the BC Government & Service Employees' Union (BCGEU) employed by Sunshine Valley Child Care are set to strike for one day on Thursday December 19, 2019. The move comes after several months of unsuccessful negotiations for a new collective agreement that will address long-standing issues with substandard wages, a lack of benefits and significant issues with recruitment and retention.

"Our members' goal is to deliver quality, professional child care to the children and families of Grand Forks, but too many years of low pay and no health & welfare benefits have led them to a crisis point," says BCGEU president Stephanie Smith. "They are fighting for a contract that compensates them fairly as qualified, trained professionals, and in turn, ensures the ongoing viability of the childcare facility in order to meet the community's needs for years to come."

WHEN: Thursday, December 19^th, 2019 at 7:30am

WHERE: Sunshine Valley Child Care Society – Grand Forks, B.C.

CONTACT: Bronwen Barnett, BCGEU Communications | e: communications@bcgeu.ca

UWU/MoveUP

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Dec. 9, 2019

BCGEU applauds new agency to make work safer for health care workers
 
The BC Government & Service Employees' Union (BCGEU) applauds the B.C. government's commitment of $8.5 million over three years to build an independent provincial occupational health and safety agency to address the high rate of injury in the health care sector.
 
"The BCGEU represents thousands of front-line health care workers who too often risk their own health and safety in the course of their work," says BCGEU president Stephanie Smith. "This new agency will change that and it's just one more example of how this government is making life better for working people."
 
As part of the most recent round of public sector collective bargaining, the need for a provincial effort to combat rising rates of injury and make workplaces safer was identified. As the lead union in the Community Bargaining Association (CBA), the BCGEU worked alongside other stakeholders in the Provincial Framework on Occupational Health and Safety in Health Care Working Group to develop a report and recommendations to create the new agency. These recommendations were endorsed in their entirety by the Ministry of Health.
 
"This work also reflects a strong consultative approach on the part of government to involve those with front-line knowledge of these issues, and a commitment to taking action based on those consultations," says Smith. "With this foundation, I expect to see the agency develop robust best practices to make the industry safer."
 
The working group will now turn to the work of establishing the new agency including appointing a board of directors, strategic planning and creating policies and procedures. Through the CBA, the BCGEU will continue its role as a stakeholder in the establishment of the agency and will hold one of six Worker Director seats on the board once appointed.
 
The BCGEU represents thousands of health care workers from community home support for seniors to those impacted by mental health and substance abuse issues or facing addictions in the community.
 
For more information contact Bronwen Barnett, BCGEU Communications, communications@bcgeu.ca

UWU/MoveUP

This week B.C.'s independent Office of the Seniors Advocate (OSA) published the first ever provincial review of the $1.4 billion-dollar contracted long-term care sector in British Columbia, A Billion Reasons to Care.

Overall, the OSA confirms what our union has been saying for years: the contracted long-term care sector lacks accountability and transparency in funding and monitoring and fails to meet the needs of seniors and their families.

In the report, the OSA also outlines how the system got to its current state. Prior to 1999 only 23 per cent of beds in long-term care were operated by for-profit companies. The rest were operated by non-profit societies and health authorities. In the two decades that followed, the sector shifted significantly towards the for-profit model due largely to legislation enacted by the BC Liberals. The previous government's legislation led to the deterioration of working conditions for health and social-sector workers by stripping workplace protections and rights and enabling contract-flipping which created a race to the bottom in terms of wages. Fortunately the BC NDP repealed these laws in late 2018, but the damage will take years to undo and leaves us where we are today – with staffing crises and care facilities under health authority administration as we have seen in Comox, Nanaimo and Victoria.

Among the report's specific findings:

• for-profit operations generate millions in profits but fall short on the number of direct care hours they are funded to deliver, to the tune of 207,000 hours over a two-year period.
• staff in the for-profit system are underpaid by as much as 28 per cent or $6.63 less per hour than the industry standard. 

The OSA makes five recommendations to address the problems it identifies:

1. Funding for direct care must be spent on direct care.
2. Monitoring for compliance with funded care hours must be more accurate.
3. Contract agencies must clearly define their profit in their reporting.
4. Standardize reporting for all care homes throughout B.C.
5. Revenues and expenditures for publicly funded care homes should be available to the public.

Our union commends the OSA for providing this critical and long-overdue insight into the contract long-term care system and supports all five recommendations. However, while these measures would certainly bring improvement to a sector so lacking in regulation, we believe our province must go further to remove the profit motive from seniors' care altogether.

It's time to restore seniors' care in B.C. by putting people before profits and bringing the sector back under government as a public service. Only then will we have a long-term solution that supports our dedicated workforce with good wages and benefits to deliver the standard of care B.C.'s seniors deserve.

The BCGEU represents over 8,000 members in seniors care with 3,000 working in residential care facilities.

Read the report here: https://www.seniorsadvocatebc.ca/app/uploads/sites/4/2020/02/ABillionReasonsToCare.pdf

UWU/MoveUP

Due to inclement weather, the Kelowna Area Office has closed for the remainder of Tuesday, February 4. The office plans to reopen, February 5, at 8:30am.

If you are a BCGEU member in the Okanagan (Area 07) and need emergency support at your worksite, please contact your union steward.

Facilities related emergencies at the site can be directed to Ryan Schmid at 778-870-7877.

Due to inclement weather, the Terrace Area office will be closed on Monday, January 20.

The office plans to reopen Tuesday, January 21, at 8:30am.

If you are a BCGEU member in area 12 and need emergency support at your worksite, please contact your union steward.

Facilities related emergencies in Terrace can be directed to Ryan Schmid at 778-870-7877.

The BC Labour Heritage Centre is pleased to inform BCGEU members that a new Prince Rupert Labour History Walking Tour has recently been added to our BC Labour History Walking Tours mobile app. 

This tour explores over a century of union organizing, struggles and victories for fishermen, shoreworkers, longshore, the IWW, the Battle of Kelly's Cut, civic politics and colourful labour characters on the North Coast. 

The app is only available for download in Canada and is completely free. Visit the Google Play or Apple Store. Once you have installed the app on your smartphone or tablet, you will need to download a route in order to view it - we encourage doing this on Wi-Fi before you leave home to avoid mobile data usage. You can also explore content from the comfort of your own home.

Click here to learn more about the BC Labour Heritage Centre's walking tours.

ICBC agrees to change potentially devastating policy on personal insurance impacts of accidents in fleet-insured vehicles

In Fall 2019, ICBC announced a policy change that would have meant that commercial drivers found at fault for accidents in work vehicles would potentially pay more for their personal insurance.

"Our union immediately understood that the original policy was completely unfair and would have potentially devastating impacts on BCGEU members and tens of thousands of other working British Columbians who operate vehicles as part of their job," said Stephanie Smith, president of the BCGEU. "We raised those concerns with the BC Public Service Agency and were impressed with their willingness to work with us to protect our members' interests."

As a result of the efforts of the BCGEU and other advocates inside and outside B.C.'s labour movement, ICBC changed the policy: at-fault crashes in a fleet vehicle have no impact on the driver's personal policy or any other policies where they're listed as a driver. The employer has also confirmed that at-fault crashes while driving B.C. government fleet vehicles will not impact an individual's private insurance rates.

"The BCGEU understands and supports the ongoing work to put ICBC on solid footing," said Smith. "Given that context, we are extremely pleased with ICBC's decision to protect workers by changing this policy. And, on behalf of every BCGEU member who would have born the brunt of the original policy, I'm extremely grateful to the BCGEU members and staff who did the legwork to get this done."

Read more about the changes here.

In solidarity,

Stephanie Smith
President

Mike Eso
Staff Representative

UWU/MoveUP