22 INDEPENDENT BARGAINING
ONE CONTRACT AT A TIME
There is no question that negotiating a new Nurses’ Bargaining Association provincial collective agreement is a high priority for the union. Regular readers of Update magazine will have seen many stories about the ongoing work BCNU members and stewards are doing to ensure that provincial health employers live up to the terms of the 2012-2014 NBA contract. But did you know that there are over 1,500 BCNU members who are covered by separate contracts negotiated with individual employers? These so-called independent contracts cover a range of worksites, from private sector employers, to non-profit long-term care facilities, to hospice care, jails and worksites covered by the former public service contract. This issue features a range of stories on recent bargaining successes these members have achieved, one contract at a time.
DR. BERNSTEIN STAFF TAKE ON EMPLOYER AND WIN
Strong contract gains include wages, sick time, union access to worksite and respect
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T’S NOT EVERY DAY THAT A small group of employees takes on an aggressive employer and wins. But that’s exactly what happened when 43 BCNU members at Dr. Bernstein Diet & Health Clinics stood up for what they needed and pushed back against management pressure to sign a bad contract. In this round of bargaining Dr. Bernstein staff insisted on meeting their primary objectives for better wages, improved sick time, union access to the workplace and professional respect. And that’s what they got after voting 100 percent for strike action and 100 percent to reject Bernstein’s final contract offer. “I’m extremely proud of our members at Bernstein’s,” says BCNU president Gayle Duteil. “Watching their determination to reach bargaining goals, and their resilience resisting employer pressure to sign a bad contract was a real inspiration.” In 2010 LPNs and medical receptionists at eight Dr. Bernstein clinics in the Lower Mainland joined BCNU and since then it’s been a battle to get a very controlling employer to respect their desire to unionize and treat them as professionals. Dr. Bernstein is a large privately-held company with almost 60 clinics in BC, Alberta and Ontario. “Dr. Bernstein can be a very unreasonable
RATIFIED AND SATISFIED Members of the Dr. Bernstein BCNU bargaining committee receive flowers after successfully ratifying a new collective agreement Feb. 11. From left: LPN Iris Gourley, BCNU Manager of Special Projects Garnet Zimmerman, LPN Navdeep Dhaliwal, BCNU campaigns officer Robert Macquarrie, BCNU labour relations officer Cheryl King, BCNU South Fraser Valley region co-chair Jonathan Karmazinuk, LPN Stephanie McKenzie, BCNU South Fraser Valley region co-chair Michelle Sordal and medical receptionist Ravinder Singh.
employer so it was fascinating to watch our members grow together during contract negotiations,” says BCNU South Fraser cochair Jonathan Karmazinuk. “Every meeting was well attended, and votes to support the negotiating team were strong. Employees
clearly had enough at the workplace and were determined to take on management until they got what they needed.” In the spring of 2015 negotiations for a second contract with Bernstein’s got off to a slow start and during the remainder of the