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'I want to assure our members that the terms and conditions of the current collective agreements will continue to apply.' - BCGEU president Darryl Walker.
Vancouver (6 Oct. 2009) - The Health Employers Association of B.C. (HEABC) has advised the British Columbia Government and Service Employees' Union (BCGEU/NUPGE) that it will allow contracted health care service providers (generally referred to as "affiliates") to terminate their HEABC memberships.
Prior to this announcement HEABC bargained on behalf of the province's six health authorities and for numerous "affiliates" receiving a majority of funding from the government. HEABC will continue to bargain on behalf of the six authorities and all affiliates that retain membership in HEABC.
HEABC bargains with the BCGEU and other unions to create three major collective agreements in the health care sector – the community subsector agreement, facilities subsector agreement and health science professionals agreement.
"Although these changes will have an impact on how we bargain for our members who provide a wide variety of important health care services to the public, we will continue to fight to achieve rights through strong collective agreements for all health care workers regardless of whether or not their employers belong to HEABC," says BCGEU president Darryl Walker.
"I want to assure our members that the terms and conditions of the current collective agreements will continue to apply to our members employed by the private care providers even if their employers choose to leave the HEABC," adds Brenda Brown, chair of BCGEU's Component 4 - Health Services. "We will bargain new agreements that will maintain and improve on the rights we presently have."
NUPGE
The National Union of Public and General Employees (NUPGE) is one of Canada's largest labour organizations with over 340,000 members. Our mission is to improve the lives of working families and to build a stronger Canada by ensuring our common wealth is used for the common good.