"It would be the largest mass layoff of women workers in Canadian history," stated Chris Allnutt, HEU secretary-business manager, to demonstrators at the concluding rally. Most of the hospital workers are women.

The Liberal government of British Columbia, headed by Premier Gordon Campbell, has been imposing sharp cuts in health and education funding in this province since its election in May 2001. On Jan. 28, 2002, the government introduced Bill 29, which shredded union contracts between the HEU and the government.

The new law also allowed for privatization of jobs--that is, employing workers through private contractors--in hospitals and other health-care facilities. Laundry workers, housekeepers, and food service workers have already been told their jobs are being contracted out; the HEU notes there are a total of 32 sectors targeted.

The March 1 action was the most recent of several protests where members of the HEU have expressed their determination to fight for their jobs and defend health-care services in the province. In January, some 4,000 HEU members marched through downtown Vancouver and hundreds participated in job actions to mark the one-year anniversary of Bill 29.

At Vancouver General Hospital, the largest hospital in British Columbia, workers have staged outdoor picket lines before and after work, marches through the hospital at lunchtime, and rallies outside the offices of the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority, the body in charge of administering the cuts.

His Lung Yeh, who has worked at Saint Jude’s long-term care home for 11 years, said that in protesting, the unionists were "not only protecting our jobs but protecting the quantity and quality" of health care.

Tina Desousa, a food service worker for 17 years at Vancouver General Hospital, said, "I believe it’s a fundamental right to preserve health care." Cesare, a transportation worker at the same hospital for 25 years, stated, "We’re here to support each other, to fight for the future of our children. People before me fought!"

Jeffrey, who has worked in food services at Vancouver General Hospital for 12 years, said, "It feels like there’s no respect. It’s not about the money, not about benefits. It’s a message to tell the government to treat us with respect."

The stakes are considerable. The cleaning facilities for a small area of Vancouver General Hospital have already been contracted out to Compass International. Dietary, laundry, and housekeeping jobs are paid only Can$9.50 an hour by Compass (Can$1=U.S. 68 cents). HEU members doing the same jobs receive $17.50 to $18.30 an hour. Workers for Compass have no pension plan or extended health benefits and receive only the minimum two week vacation period required by provincial labor laws, no matter how long they have worked there.

Annette Kouri is a meat packer in the lower Mainland of British Columbia.  
 
 
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