Convention 2006 gets down to business

With four-year contracts covering most of the union's membership in place, delegates to HEU"s 25th biennial convention laid out a series of action plans to defend members’ collective agreement rights, protect public health care and prepare for private-sector bargaining in 2008.

But they didn’t stop there. They also put communication and accountability measures in place to achieve those strategic objectives.

Specifically, delegates directed the Provincial Executive (PE) to hold a post-convention planning meeting with the union’s newly-appointed committees and provide locals - by April 2007 – with a blueprint for
acting on the convention’s action initiatives.

Progress reports will be issued every six months.

Resolutions aimed at boosting grassroots union involvement in provincial activities were also adopted, with an expanded role for rank and file members on PE sub-committees.

And following the success of last year’s pre-bargaining conferences, occupational conferences will be held in all sectors, including community health and community social services, prior to bargaining. One conference in each of the following six job families will also be held: patient care, technical, trades, clerical, support services and patient care technical.

Know Our Rights, Enforce Our Rights

Building strength on the ground, in the workplace, emerged as a top priority for action over the next four years.

Elements include member education, a regional focus on workload issues, and workplace campaigns to enforce new and pre-existing collective agreement rights.

A key goal will be to bolster shop steward training, mentoring and support in an effort to double the number of current shop stewards.

The plan also spells out the need to continue to communicate and network within the occupational and sectoral groupings that met prior to the union’s last round of public-sector bargaining.

Protect and Strengthen Public Health Care

On the eve of Premier Gordon Campbell’s year-long "Conversation on Health," convention delegates adopted a comprehensive action strategy to build support for public health care in communities across the province. Of chief concern is the rapid advance of privatized health care services in B.C. – greater than any other jurisdiction in Canada – and its impact on costs, public access, accountability, wages and service quality. And despite clear evidence that the public sector can deliver services more effectively, the B.C. government’s privatization push shows no sign of abating.

Specifically, HEU will mobilize members and work with the union’s coalition partners to promote positive public health care reforms and combat further moves toward private, for-profit health care.

The initiative will also focus on building a member network to engage in political action activities and calls for a political action conference to be held prior to the 2009 provincial election.

"Big 3" Private-Sector Bargaining Preparation

First contracts covering HEU members employed by Aramark and Sodexho are set to expire in the fall of 2008. At press time, Compass workers in the Provincial Health Services and Vancouver Island Health authorities were still without a first collective agreement, despite months of negotiations.

Recognizing the need to boost wages and working conditions for these and all health care workers, delegates adopted a strategy to prepare for 2008 bargaining with "the big three."

It includes launching a community campaign for living wages here in B.C., holding a private-sector bargaining conference in 2007, and linking with allies in the global community who are facing similar struggles with the same multi-national corporations.

Efforts will also be directed toward building greater solidarity between HEU members who are employed directly by health authorities and those who work for the private employers.

What’s Next

In all, delegates adopted 16 constitutional amendments and 31 resolutions. Upcoming meetings of the PE will develop strategic priorities for the union, based on direction from the convention. And by the end of the year, the PE will have put a budget in place to support those initiatives.

Convention proceedings will be sent to locals in the new year.