Vancouver —
Premier Gordon Campbell and his government tried to quell a growing tide toward a general public sector strike Friday by hitting television airwaves to tell health support workers their pay doesn't have to be cut at all if they agree to some concessions.
More than 40,000 health support workers stayed off the job after the government passed legislation Thursday forcing them back to work and imposing a contract that cuts $200-million from their wages and benefits.
The Labour Relations Board declared their continued walkout illegal early Friday. A hearing was later scheduled in B.C. Supreme Court for Sunday at 10 a.m. to hear arguments by the Health Employers' Association of B.C. that the union should be fined for contempt of the order.
Fines would not be directed at individuals and that jail time was not being sought, said the association's lawyer.
"We will simply be arguing the union is in breach of the labour board order, which is now a court order, and that we just want the employees to go back to work," said lawyer Naz Mitha.
Labour Minister Graham Bruce met earlier with officials of several of B.C.'s public sector unions Friday and said he was "encouraged" by the talks, but neither he nor any of the leaders would comment on what happens next.
"Who knows?" shrugged Jim Sinclair, president of the B.C. Federation of Labour.
Meanwhile, thousands of workers left their jobs in support of the Hospital Employees Union, shutting down schools and keeping an estimated 27,000 students from class, disrupting ferry traffic, hampering operations at a forestry mill in Prince George, cancelling garbage pickup in Vancouver and closing Vancouver permits and licensing offices, among other civic services.
Barry O'Neill, the B.C. President of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, said his group's 70,000 members were planning to walk off the job in protest Monday, and was calling for other unions to join in.
Health authorities said in some cases, health support workers weren't even showing up to meet essential service levels, leaving no one to do such critical tasks as sterilizing equipment.
Seventy-nine children's surgeries have been cancelled at B.C. Children's Hospital since Monday, according to a government press statement.
Also among the 4,000 missed patient surgeries, said government, were two women who needed breast cancer surgery, an elderly woman with a fractured hip, and a three-year-old boy who'd waited months to have a growth removed.
A backlog of 38,000 cervical cancer screening tests was created and at least 450 screening mammograms a day have been cancelled.
More than 800 B.C. Hydro workers also walked off their jobs.
Most union leaders didn't directly order their workers to stay off their jobs in solidarity with the HEU.
But many issued news releases using couched language giving support to anyone that decided to.
The B.C. Nurses Union said it is not organizing walkouts, but if nurses "make their own decision" to reduce services to essential services levels, "the union will support and defend them."
The B.C. Government and Service Employees Union, which recently signed several contracts with the government that included wage concessions, urged its members to give "their personal support."
Mr. Campbell appealed for calm.
"The law's there to protect patients," Mr. Campbell said.
"They should be obeying the law. They should be using the law."
He encouraged the HEU to exercise its right in the legislation to sit down with the employers and an arbitrator and negotiate how the 15 per cent cut in the union's wages and benefits will work out.
"I understand this is difficult for workers," he said.
"If a worker in the HEU would give up one of their nine weeks vacation and decided to go to a 40-hour week, there would be no hit on their paycheque."
The premier met with Mr. Bruce and Health Minister Colin Hansen later Friday. There was no word on future meetings between government and labour leaders.
Spokesmen for local health authorities were trying Friday to determine whether they should cancel surgeries scheduled for Monday and possibly Tuesday.
The government points out that the HEU had the richest contract in Canada with a 36-hour work week. The legislation increases the work week to 37.5 hours, the same as several other provinces. Only Quebec is lower at 36.25.
B.C. workers have the richest holiday benefits with a maximum nine weeks vacation, while every other province except Quebec has six. Quebec has a maximum of five weeks.
Hourly wages for HEU workers in British Columbia also far exceeded those elsewhere, the government has repeatedly said.
However, union leaders focused on the notion workers were going to be forced into a 15 per cent pay cut. It's unprecedented for a government to impose a rollback, union leaders say.
The legislation tabled Wednesday provides for a maximum wage cut of 11 per cent if the union refuses to exercise its right to ask for an arbitrator. Four per cent of cost savings come from the extended work hours, the legislation says.
Further outraging workers was the fact the contract is retroactive to April 1, meaning workers would have to pay back some of the wages they earned throughout that month.
Meanwhile, the government contract supplies no guarantee the contracting out of jobs like cleaning and food service would stop.
Mr. Campbell said the government offered a cap on contracting out on Tuesday night, but it was rejected.
The premier said the union has the flexibility to ensure wages aren't drastically rolled back and to negotiate a cap on contracting out.
He said the government specifically asked the union executive Tuesday night whether it would be willing to come to the table to negotiate a cap on contracting out.
"They have to be at the table to do that and the HEU was not willing to come back to the table to discuss it," Mr. Campbell said.
The premier said the cap on contracting out and the retroactive nature of the imposed contract can be discussed with a mediator.
But union members were fighting mad. Some said they were ready to go to jail by continuing to defy the back-to-work order.
Victor Elkins, the chair of the HEU local at Children's and Women's hospital, said morale on the lines is high.
"Most of us haven't had much sleep in the last four days, but you wouldn't know it," he said. "We're just buzzing right now."
As Mr. Bruce left the meeting Friday with representatives of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, the HEU and the B.C. Federation of Labour, he gave no indication of whether there was an end in sight to the dispute.
"I've heard from the parties there," Mr. Bruce said. "I was also very clear that I can't be negotiating while there's illegal job activity taking place."
The B.C. Fed's Mr. Sinclair appeared to indicate talks with the government would continue.
"I'm unhappy to say that we didn't solve it right now, but we're waiting for further discussions with the government to find a solution to this problem."
