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"We are asking for provisions in the new agreement that better empower workers to identify hazards and recommend solutions." — Andrea Duncan, Chair, CSSBA negotiating team
Vancouver (08 June 2018) — The Community Social Services Bargaining Association (CSSBA) in British Columbia has now concluded its third week of negotiations with the Community Social Services Employers’ Association (CSSEA). The groups exchanged more proposals with a focus on occupational health and safety issues and concerns.
Workers in community social services face violence regularly
"The CSSBA identified workplace safety as a priority area for this round of bargaining,” says Andrea Duncan, Chair of the Negotiating Committee. “Frontline workers in community-based agencies, for example, face some of the highest levels of violence on the job. We are asking for provisions in the new agreement that better empower workers to identify hazards and recommend solutions.”
Bargaining committee members are committed to bringing forward the mandate developed by members covered by the collective agreement in order to achieve a fair and improved contract on behalf of community social service workers. Members of Health Sciences Association of B.C (HSABC/NUPGE) are represented at the bargaining table by Kerry Hammell, a youth and family counsellor at John Howard Society, and Sharon Geoghegan, a staff negotiator.
The Community Social Services Bargaining Association is made up of 16,000 members working around the province and represented by the following unions:
- B.C. Government and Service Employees' Union (BCGEU/NUPGE)
- Canadian Unionof Public and General Employees (CUPE),
- Health Employees' Union (HEU),
- HSABC/NUPGE,
- Construction & Specialized Workers' Union (CSWU),
- United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW),
- United Steelworkers (USW),
- Service Employees International Union (SEIU),
- Christian Labour Association of Canada (CLAC)
- B.C. Nurses Union (BCNU).