Labour

A Social Credit government memoran-
dum has revealed that the first wave of
privatization in health care — part of the
province’s ambulance sevice — is slated
to begin May |. But the province’s ambu-
lance paramedics have vowed to fight the
government move.

The paramedics — members of Local
873 of the Canadian Union of Public
Employees — released copies of a memo
earlier this month which indicated that the
government intends to sub-contract to
private ambulance operators “priority 4”
and “priority 3” patient transfers. Included
are transfers of patients from acute care to
chronic care facilities, from one hospital to
another or from doctors’ offices and hos-
pitals to patients’ homes.

The publication of the leaked memo
follows comments by Premier Bill Vander
Zalm March 5 that the government is con-
sidering privatization of some ambulance
services.

The document, dated Feb. 22, 1988, is
signed by Carl Baillie, communication
supervisor for Region 3 (Lower Mainland)
of the Health Ministry’s Emergency
Health Services Commission.

It states that the plan for privatization
of parts of the service could “ultimately
achieve a level of utilization of 15 to 17 per
cent” of the total number of responses by
ambulance dispatchers. According to fig-

ures used in the memo,

some 130

responses per day in the region could be
assigned to private ambulances.

Initially, the privatization would be
limited to transfers of patients from one
hospital to another but that would be
expanded within a year to include those
instances “where pre-hospital care or
treatment is not required.”

The timetable calls for an announce-
ment to be made April 1, 1988, followed
by implementation of privatization May 1,
1988. The month between the announce-
ment and implementation is intended “to
allow private operators to staff and equip
for an anticipated volume increase.” ”

All four phases of the proposed privati-
zation scheme are to be completed within
one year.

Signifincantly, the memo also notes:
“Expanded utilization of private resources
could be foreseen however our goals
should lower until their reliability and ser-
vice can be proven.”

Following the leaking of the memo, the
Emergency Health Services Commission
issued a statement in Victoria stating that
it was “considering options” and that
“developments may allow for current
transfer services to transport increased
numbers of non-emergency patients. be-
tween facilities or facilities and homes.”

“The executive committee and board is
determined to fight the government at
every turn to stop contracting out,” CUPE
873 president Robin Jones declared in a

letter to the membership earlier this
month. “Contracting-out ambulance work
makes no sense, it’s not cost efficient and
it’s not people-oriented — it’s dollar-
oriented and it’s wrong.”

The local sent out letters to dozens of
community groups and other organiza-
tions March 15 warning of the impending
privatization scheme and urging them to
write their MLAs, the health minister and
Vander Zalm to oppose the plan.

“The people of B.C. do not want to lose
their award-winning ambulance service
but the premier hasn’t heard them yet,”
the letter noted.

Both Vander Zalm and the EHSC have
attempted to justify the privatization-on
the basis that it will free existing ambu-
lance services for genuine emergencies. In
fact, said Jones, it will add a further
burden to already overloaded dispatch
system, since calls would still come to the
central dispatch and would be referred to
private operators from there.

In addition, he said, the elderly and
infirm who constitute most of the patient
transfers, would be given a lower standard
of care than emergency patients requiring
ambulances.

Jones warned that the “beginning of the
gutting of our ambulance service has
started.”

The union intends to step up the cam-
paign against the government’s scheme

Paramedics fight privatization scheme

over the next several weeks, he said.

Jones warned that the privatization
would not stop at patient transfers or with
Region 3. “If contracting-out succeeds in
Vancouver, it will spread though the pro-
vince,” he emphasized.

He also drew attention to the provisions
of Chapter 14 of the free trade agreement
which will give U.S. corporations the right
to come into this country and take over
management of various medical services,
including ambulance services.

Ironically, Vancouver had private
ambulance services until 1974 when the
system across the province was taken over
by the government with the approval of
the private operators. The ambulance ser-
vice in B.C. had been a patchwork of var-
ious services run by hospitals, — fire
departments and private carriers all sub-
sidized by municipal governments.

At one point, in 1973, the Ambulance
Employees Union itself provided the fund-
ing to maintain the ambulance service in
Vancouver, Burnaby and New Westmins-
ter for 10 days while the private operator,
Metropolitan Ambulance Services Ltd.,
wrangled with the municipalities over sub-
sidies.

Since its formation, the provincial ser-
vice has been a model across the country,
particularly because of the standard of
pre-hospital care provided by B.C. para-
medics.

BCTF convention eyes teachers negotiations

B.C.’s public school teachers supported
their federation’s continued role in profes-
sional development and seeking more
teacher control over curriculum, and reaf-
firmed the organization’s speaking out on
social and political issues at the 72nd meet-
ing of the B.C. Teachers Federation, March
27-29.

The convention — the first for the feder-
ation as a union since the 1930s — re-
elected an unopposed Elsie: McMurphy toa
third term as president, and elected aligned
candidates Ken Novakowski and Mike
Lombardi as first and second vice-
presidents, respectively.

Supporters of McMurphy — grouped

into the Teachers for a United Federation,

— also swept the executive members-at-
large elections, capturing five of the six posi-
tions available this year.

Teachers face a hard round of bargaining
to strike collective agreements in the next
few months, McMurphy told the delegates
in her opening speech to the convention.

“The sheer immensity and complexity of
the task of providing professional, individ-
ual, and union protections alone will
demand much skill and time. Equally
important is our first opportunity to bar-
gain clauses that will have significant impact
on improving our working lives as
teachers,” she said.

McMurphy warned that some boards
may behave like those in the Queen Char-
lottes and Vancouver Island West, where
teachers finally won contracts after months
of withholding extra curricular activities.
The teachers won because “they built par-
ent, labour and community support for
their just and clearly-defined objectives,”
she said.

The BCTF president received strong
applause in citing the victories of the recent
Toronto teachers’ strike and the strike by
the United Nurses of Alberta. She said: “We
who oppose Bill 19 and support the IRC

12 e Pacific Tribune, March 30, 1988

(Industrial Relations Council) boycott find
no small measure of leadership in their
courageous actions.”

McMurphy said later that inclusion
under the province’s labour laws means
teachers now have the strike weapon in
upcoming negotiations, to take place in 73
of the federation’s 75 locals.

She told the convention that although the
provincial government has already “barged
into” negotiations by announcing a ceiling
of 2.8 per cent on salary increases, the feder-

. ation considers that “‘an opening bargaining

position.”

She defended the federation’s right to
speak out on controversial issues, saying,
“We must educate this and subsequent gen-
erations of students to view themselves as
global citizens; teach them they are in con-
trol of their lives, not victims of circum-
stance.”

The convention agreed, handily defeat-
ing two motions that would have had the
federation restrict its comments to “‘educa-
tion” issues, and refrain from taking posi-
tions on issues such as abortion and free
trade.

Most motions dealt with technical mat-
ters such as the federation’s role in profes-
sional development, class sizes and, teacher
workloads and other items crucial to future
agreements with the province’s school dis-
tricts.

The election victories of McMurphy’s
Teachers for a United Federation — a
body formed during controversy last year
on whether the federation would admit into
its ranks any locals that did not vote for
union status (none did) — spelled defeat
for most candidates in Teachers Viewpoint.

McMurphy said later that the differences
between the two groups — she was for-
merly with Teachers Viewpoint — “‘is
more a question of style of leadership than
differences in the objectives we seek.”

Federal civil servants, members of the Public Service Alliance of Canada

a demand for one contract to cover all PSAC components. Representative
Peter Vranjkovic said PSAC’s immediate goal is to reduce the current 31
““tables’’ — separate bargaining units — to seven, while the government stalls
on negotiations and sticks with its demand of 16 tables, binding arbitration and
the right to contract-out more PSAC jobs. The government has already had its
claim that the union is bargaining in bad faith rejected by the Public Service
Staff Relations Board, Vranjkovic said.

(PSAC), demonstrate outside Canada Harbour Place in Vancouver March 25 in ~

TRIBUNE PHOTO — DAN KEETON-

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