[van-announce] HEU Day of Action - January 28

[resist admin]

January 20, 2003

Days of Defiance:
Rallies planned in Victoria and Vancouver for
Wednesday

In a series of ongoing actions protesting the
Campbell government's health care cuts and
privatization agenda, members of the Hospital
Employees' Union and their supporters will rally
Wednesday, January 22, in Vancouver and Victoria.
'Days of Defiance' actions will continue at other
locations Thursday and Friday.

   * Vancouver General Hospital One Hour for
     Justice, 6:30 a.m. - 8:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m.
     -- 4:30.pm, on 12th Avenue
   * Children's and Women's Hospital, One Hour for
     Justice, 6:30 a.m. - 8:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m.
     -- 4:00 p.m.
   * Gorge Road Hospital in Victoria, Rally to Save
     Gorge Road, 3:00 p.m.

In Vancouver, workers are holding a One Hour for
Justice information line to protest Vancouver
General Hospital and the Vancouver Coastal Health
Authority's refusal to back down on the contracting
out of thousands of hospital jobs ­ despite
increasing evidence that the health and safety of
patients and workers will be jeopardized and money
will not be saved. Workers will join the line for
one half hour before and after their shifts.

This protest follows on the heels of failed
attempts to sway VGH management and the health
authority that privatizing jobs will cost money and
in some cases, lives. Following a January 10
meeting where VGH management made it clear their
contracting-out agenda would not be altered, HEU
members attempted to take their case to the health
authority on January 15, where they were met with a
locked elevator and closed doors.

In Victoria, workers and residents at Gorge Road
Hospital will hold their third sidewalk rally in
less than a week at 3 pm on Wednesday to stop the
hospital's closure ­ a decision organizers say will
unnecessarily disrupt the lives of hundreds of
people. It is expected 476 health care workers will
receive lay off notices in about three weeks’ time.

Pierre Levesque, a hospital cook and vice-chair of
Gorge Local, condemned the closure, saying the
region was short more than 300 long-term care beds
prior to the decision to close Gorge Road. “Now
they're eliminating 300 more beds ­ where exactly
are these residents going to go? For most, assisted
living will not be appropriate for their special
health needs.”

And workers at Children's and Women's Hospital in
Vancouver will hold mount an information line
outside the facility in response to Monday's news
that the Provincial Health Services Authority has
taken the next step towards privatization by
issuing a Request for Proposals for a range of
housekeeping and food services.

The RFP affects more than 500 workers at C&W, the
B.C. Cancer Agency and Sunnyhill Health Centre for
Children.