[LabComm] James calls on Premier to recall the Legislature to resolve crisis

[BC NDP NEWSWIRE]

VANCOUVER – BC NDP Leader Carole James today sent the following open letter to Premier Gordon Campbell urging him to recall the BC Legislature tomorrow in a effort to resolve the growing crisis facing the province.

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Mr. Gordon Campbell, Premier
Province of British Columbia
Parliament Buildings
Victoria, British Columbia

Dear Mr. Premier

I am writing you today to strongly urge you to recall the Legislature tomorrow – Saturday May 1 – in order to put an end to the crisis facing British Columbia.

As a result of developments in the health care sector this week, and the choices your government made to deliberately provoke confrontation, the province is on the brink of a crisis that threatens to further erode investor confidence in British Columbia and destabilize the BC economy.

This crisis is entirely the fault of your government. At numerous points in the past week, your government had the option to choose positive solutions and a non-confrontational approach to this dispute. On Monday, our Opposition Caucus in the Legislature put forward a Health Care Services Continuation Act that called for a reasonable suspension of further privatization during the period of negotiations between hospital workers and health employers. Such an approach would have allowed both parties to get back to the table and avoid the situation we currently face.

Instead, you chose to force through the Legislature a bill that is a blatant attack on working people in this province – a bill that can only create further tension and confrontation in an already poisonous labour relations climate.

The NDP debated against this legislation for as long as possible under the rules of the Legislature until the final vote was called at 5:30 a.m. Thursday.
 
During the debate on Bill 37 Wednesday evening, in an attempt to blunt the most extreme clauses of this legislation, our Caucus put forward numerous amendments that would have addressed the most serious concerns of health care providers while ensuring an orderly resumption of full health care services.

Those amendments included:

1) Removing the extremely harsh imposition of retroactive wage cuts that would see employees—including those who have already received lay-off notices—forced to pay back wages received since the expiration of the former collective agreement.
2) Extending the transition period during which the wage reduction would apply, giving employees—the vast majority of whom are women, many of whom are single parents—more time to adjust to a 15 percent reduction in their pay.
3) Providing that should health care unions opt for the arbitration clause in the Act, that the arbitrator be mutually agreeable to the employer and the Union.

However, rather than take the responsible path here, you instructed every one of your MLAs in the Legislature to vote against each of these reasonable amendments.

Mr. Premier, your approach to health care is not working.  In the last election, you made a promise to respect and value by health care providers.  But, one of your first acts as Premier was to tear up legally-binding agreements in the health sector.  The situation we face today as a province is a direct result of that action.  Our province desperately needs a new approach to this issue.  You have an historic opportunity in the coming days to demonstrate courage and responsible leadership.  

You must now demonstrate that kind of responsible leadership by recalling the Legislature tomorrow to repeal Bill 37 altogether; or, in the alternative, to amend the legislation to address the very real and serious concerns of health care providers, and indeed of many thousands of other British Columbians.

I implore you to set aside your partisanship and ideology and to govern in the interests of all British Columbians.

Sincerely,


Carole James, leader
BC New Democratic Party


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Media contact: Scott Perchall (604) 862-7747

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