B.C. paramedics are striking over issues of wage disparity, working conditions and understaffing due to problems in recruitment and retainment of staff.
Two facilitators have been appointed on behalf of the employer, British Columbia Ambulance Service (BCAS), and CUPE 873, which represent the paramedics.
"Barry O'Neill for CUPE and Stephen Brown, associate deputy minister of health services, are going to try to identify common ground to get back to the bargaining table," said BJ Chute, director of public education for Ambulance Paramedics of B.C.
Paramedics went on strike April 1, taking job action on administrative duties, not critical care, but negotiations came to a grinding halt when the election campaign writ dropped on April 14.
On May 11, BCAS asked the Labor Relations Board to file an essential services order with the Supreme Court of B.C. citing in a press release that CUPE 873 escalated job action that resulted in critical staff shortages in the Lower Mainland and Fraser Valley. A breach of the essential services order could be considered as contempt of court.
Chute said BCAS "threatened and intimidated" individual paramedics with contempt of court when they refused a call because they were in the middle of their mandatory WorkSafe BC safety check of the ambulance, and sent a second ambulance out instead.
"We're not withdrawing services from the public. That was never going to happen. Our dispute is clearly with the government," Chute said.
The union is asking for parity with other emergency service providers, but in a conference call in March, Lee Doney, acting chief executive officer for Emergency and Health Services Commission, said, "There has never been parity between police forces and paramedics in our province."
Instead, the latest press release compares paramedics to nurses, teachers, social workers and service employers.
"Paramedics are part of the emergency response team," Chute said. "All three [police, fire and paramedics] play different roles, but all three [are first responders]."
Strike signs have gone up at local ambulance stations on the Coast and there are stickers on the sides of the vehicles, but Chute said the public should not be frightened that their care will suffer. He encouraged the public to go to www.saveourparamedics.com to find out more about the strike. BCAS also has a website at www.bcas.ca.
