[LabComm] NDP welcomes resolution of crisis

[BC NDP NEWSWIRE]

VANCOUVER – The following statement was issued today by BC NDP leader Carole James.

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I join with all British Columbians in welcoming the news that both sides in the dispute between the government and health care workers have reached an agreement.  Through negotiation a settlement was reached under extremely difficult circumstances. Sadly, the Campbell government could easily have avoided this situation and the very difficult position it put patients and the public around this province.  

On Thursday, Premier Gordon Campbell’s government passed legislation that provoked further conflict in an already very tense dispute. 

What I heard very clearly from British Columbians is that Bill 37 was a mistake. The government went too far. One of the challenges of governing responsibly is to admit when mistakes are made and then quickly do what’s necessary to rectify the damage that’s been caused. 

The government took the most provocative and extreme path in this dispute. And British Columbians from all walks of life recognized it was the wrong thing to do. But, rather than engage in constructive dialogue that could have prevented the conflict, the Campbell government chose to inflame tensions in a labour-relations climate already rendered poisonous by three years of the Liberals’ confrontational approach. 

Bill 37 was also an unprecedented legislative attack on women workers in BC, and a cowardly attempt to blame workers who deliver patient care for the government’s own failures in health care . 

>From the outset, the NDP sought ways to avoid this conflict and prevent the drastic results for patient care. We offered constructive, positive avenues for dialogue – a way to restore the health care system and to restore trust. The Premier himself acknowledged that the most extreme elements of Bill 37 – unlimited privatization in health care and retroactive wage cuts – were at the centre of this dispute. Over the past week, we fought Bill 37 in the Legislature, we suggested amendments to withdraw the most contentious elements that were at issue, and we called for an emergency session of the Legislature over the weekend. But the government aggressively rejected this path.

As a direct result of its actions, the Campbell government precipitated this crisis and it must now take responsibility for those actions. British Columbians no longer trust this government, and its actions over the past week can only reinforce that mistrust. If the Premier takes away one lesson from all of this, surely it must be that his government’s privatization agenda for health care and the heavy-handed approach to workers who deliver public services in British Columbia is failing British Columbians.

The lesson the premier must take away from this is that if it wishes to find modern, innovative, and cost-effective means of delivering public health care services, government must start from a position of respect – respect for the public and patients, respect for legally negotiated agreements, and the collective bargaining process, and respect for the value of listening to, and working with, those who deliver patient services in BC. 

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MEDIA CONTACT: Scott Perchall 604-862-7747

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