Listen to the broadcast version of this story, which aired on Kootenay Morning on June 24:
By Jaime Frederick, Local Journalism Initiative
The BC Nurses’ Union is holding a solidarity rally in Trail on Friday afternoon (July 24) to generate support for nurses, some of whom say they have experienced cases of intimidation, threats and coercion from their employer, Interior Health Authority, in response to their legal job action.
Tamara Roscoe, a representative for the union in Trail, is a registered nurse at Kootenay Boundary Regional Hospital with 23 years’ experience. She says the rally is meant to build solidarity between nurses, other unions and the public.
“It is about nurses coming together with our community partners and our sister unions to call on Interior Health really to end the mistreatment of nurses participating in lawful job action,” said Roscoe. “And so hopefully tomorrow will send a clear message that nurses deserve to be treated with respect, all the while making sure that our patients are being cared for. But also exercising our legal rights to job action.”
Roscoe reports that in the Interior Health region alone, more than 1,000 nurses have filed reports of intimidation and bullying since their legal job action began on July 2.
“In Interior Health as a whole, and also in the West Kootenay region, we are seeing intimidation from the employer, threats to our college, which is the BCCNM [British Columbia College of Nurses and Midwives], and coercion tactics,” she said. “And it really does highlight the toxic workplace that we are faced with every day, but it’s really escalated during job action.”
Kootenay Co-op Radio reached out to Interior Health for comment; they deferred to the Health Employers’ Association of BC (HEABC), who stated in an email that “the Union’s unfair labour practice complaint alleging the intimidation of staff is a disputed claim.” They added that “The complaint is before the Labour Relations Board and HEABC will be representing the employers before the… Board, in defending against the complaint.”
In May, 98.2 per cent of BCNU members voted to strike and then in June a majority of them voted to reject a tentative agreement with the HEABC, which then put them in a legal position to strike. Their job action to date has included measures such as a ban on non-nursing duties and non-essential overtime, as well as picket lines in some communities. Earlier this week, the union suspended job action in Kimberley and other communities impacted by wildfires.
Prior to the strike vote, nurses had been in collective bargaining with HEABC since last fall, and their demands include safe and secure staffing levels, improved workplace safety, respect for the profession and a fair collective agreement. The two parties are currently in mediation.
Roscoe says nurses are grateful for the public’s support and hopes the rally in Trail will be well attended.
“We are seeing and feeling the outstanding appreciation for nurses and the community support,” she said. “And so I just want to do a shout-out to the public for demonstrating their support during this job action to us. We’re really feeling the support from our community. And just knowing that patient care is our number one priority while we’re doing our job action.”
The rally will take place on Friday, July 24, at 3 p.m., in Trail, in front of the Workers’ Memorial Monument located at 1051 Victoria Street, which is just across from the Cominco Arena on Bay Avenue.
