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Vol. 73/No. 18      May 11, 2009

 
Vancouver hospital workers
march, demand higher pay
 
BY MIKE BARKER  
VANCOUVER, British Columbia—After a spirited rally April 9 in front of Vancouver General Hospital, some 250 hospital cleaning staff, dietary workers, and their supporters marched to the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority to demand a living wage. On April 6 the cleaners and dietary staff at the authority voted more than 95 percent in favor of strike action.

The workers are part of some 2,400 members of the Hospital Employees Union (HEU) working for the Aramark and Sodexo companies.

In 2002 thousands of workers hired directly by public health-care facilities were fired after Aramark and Sodexo won contracts to provide cleaning and food services. Wages were cut from Can$18.50 to Can$10.00 an hour with almost none of the previous benefits (Can$1 = US 82 cents). Aramark is offering a wage increase of $1.57 an hour over five years. Sodexo wants a five-year agreement that freezes wages for retail food-service workers and grants an average yearly raise of 25 cents an hour for everyone else.

The march drew support from other union members who work at Vancouver General Hospital and from members of the British Columbia Nurses Union. Also present were members of UNITE Local 40 who recently won wage increases for Aramark workers at GM Place Stadium ranging from 17 to 22 percent over three years.

Ana Vaquerano, a Sodexo retail food-service worker at VGH, said the offer of no wage increase over five years “was humiliating… . They think they can hire us one day and fire us the next. I want to go on strike!”

Mike Barker is an HEU member at Vancouver General Hospital.
 
 
Related articles:
Workers in N. Ireland continue auto sit-in
Chrysler, GM bosses, gov’t demand new union givebacks  
 
 
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