Delegates make historic change

Shortly before midnight on October 6 the gavel came down on HEU's 25th biennial convention.

It adjourned a ground-breaking gathering of more than 500 delegates, who, over the course of five days, made key changes to the union"s structure and laid out solid strategic initiatives (see page 8) that will strengthen locals, prepare our defense of public medicare, and plan for 2008 bargaining with the major private contractors in health care.

Delegates amended the constitution to align the union’s regional boundaries with the province’s five geographical health authorities and they redefined the composition of HEU’s Provincial Executive.

The result? Greater regional representation and accountability within the union - and the ability to more effectively coordinate labour-management relations and address workplace and community issues on a regional basis. And delegates directed the union to hold twice-yearly regional meetings to facilitate this work.

These and other changes flow directly from the recommendations of the Task Force for a New Union – mandated by the 2004 biennial convention – and its 18-month consultation with union members.

HEU’s new regions are: Vancouver Coastal, Fraser, Interior, Northern and Vancouver Island. The positions of fourth and fifth vice-presidents, as well as two member-at-large positions, were deleted and replaced with four additional regional vice-presidents.

Other significant amendments provide locals with more flexibility around executive elections, budgets, the steward structure and membership meetings.

Voting delegates ratified Judy Darcy’s appointment as the union’s secretary-business manager and elected 20 members to the new Provincial Executive including Fred Muzin, who was re-elected president, and Donisa Bernardo, who was elected financial secretary, replacing Mary LaPlante who retired after 22 years in the position.

Both are full-time officers of the union based in the Burnaby provincial office. Muzin, who has held the position since 1993, previously worked as a biomedical engineering technologist at St. Paul’s Hospital in Vancouver. Bernardo, a PE member for the past eight years, is a pharmacy technician who hails from Royal Inland Hospital in Kamloops.