Dispatches March 1997

March 17 1997

Dispatches

HEALTH SCIENCES ASSOCIATION

HSAS

AND

SASKATCHEWAN

HE A L TH

THE

O F H E .A L TH

CA R E

There is a crisis be(ore us. HSAS as a union of health care professionals could cease to exist in this province . In any health "crisis" recovery hinges on our innate potential for self-healing and renewal. If our community of interests are to prevail the first step will be to affirm this community through a vote for HSAS.

HSAS ~

庐 ' 路~

A vote for HSAS is a vote to keep alive a distinct community of interest. It is a vote to maintain the existence <f the g.!1lJ?. health care profe$$ional union in Sask ....chewan. ~

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"CRISIS"?WHAT With the approval of the Dorsey (Commissioner) Regulations on January 17, 1997 our troubles have only just begun! To start with, every employee in each Health District will have to "fit" into one of three reconfigured "standard" employee units: (1) Health Services Providers (districtwide) (2)Nurses, (province-wide) (3)

Health Support (province -wide .)

Practitioners

Dorsey accomodated the 1 institutional and bur, ,-, cratic interests of SAHO and the tht-.:>dlargest health care unions: CUPE, SEIU and SUN. This included the eradication of either 31thcare union.

HSAS or SGEU as a

DORSEY DEBACLE SOME FREQUENTLY

of

All members of HSAS join in saying '1bank-You"to the technologistswho have playedsuch a vital role in the life of our Union. The l~ of closeto 300technologists ~ a great blow to our union. It is a deep l,ersonaldisappointment to the many in our Unionand technologists :echnologists notin our Unionwhohad hopedtojoin with

Thanks

It was a two-step strategy: (1) reconfigure the bargaining units in such a way as to cripple HSAS by arbitrarily transferring almost alt HSAS technologists in Saskatoon to SEIU and, (2) "pit" the remaining 500 HSAS members against SGEU with its considerable resources in a winner-takeall vote for the "Practitioners" Unit.

The risks are enormous for HSAS. However, with lower dues, a competitive wage/benefit package, a contract and union structure tailored to the unique needs of profE' ionals and a 25 year history of uphola l ng the aspirations 路of health care professionals, HSAS will prev ...:'.

.. WHAT HAPPENS NOW? ASKED QUESTIONS

will not have the option to vote "nounion".) (2) Unionized Practitioners in the Health District Affiliates. See Table C page 2 for list of Practitioners ..

Q: When will the vote take place?

A: No date has been set yet but we expect the LRBto set the vote for late May 1997.

Q: What happens to HSAS Contract?

A: If you change unions the new union is obligated by the Regulations to administer your existing Collective Bargaining Agreement until a new one is negotiated .

Q: Will my seniority be protected?

A: Yes. Every unionized employee will retain accrued seniority. (Previously non-

Q: Why do we have to vote for a union when we are already in a union.?

A: Dorsey simply assigned unions, based on majority representation in each District for all but 2 of the 45 new units. Votes will be held in North Central Health District (SEID & SGEU) and for the Practitioner Unit (HSAS & SGEU).

(Only those unions representing 25% or more of the employees in the Unit can be on the Ballot.)

Q: Who will be eligible to vote?

A: (1) All Practitioners in Health Districts included in Table C of the Regulations whether unionized or not. (Currently nonunion Practitioners in the Health Districts

A Letter

CRISIS?

to

Our

union employees of Health Districts will have their "service" recognized as seniority on an equivalent basis . Non-union employees of Affiliates, however , must request to be included in the Practitioner Unit to ensure their service is recognized.)

Q: What will HSAS do for us ?

A: Our role is to keep you infonned, answer your questions, and encourage eligible voters to vote! We are setting up employee meetings in all Health Districts. Please call us i(vou want a special meeting set up.

Q: How can we compare what HSAS has to offer over what SGEU is offering?

A. See page 3 of this Newsletter!

Technologists!

us. Regrettably, Letters and Petitions to Dorsey and the governmentto includethe technologists were ignored as was the TechnologistBookletprepared by Spencer Hansonon a volunteerbasis forHSAS. We thank the technologistscurrentlyon ExecutiveCouncilas well as past officers and committeemembersand thoseinvolved

with the difficult and frustrating Lab Scivices consolidation.. We \\ish to" acknowledgethe conu-ibutionof three past technologist Presidents : Terry Akistcr, Janice Peterson and Ed Dewhurst who is also on our Board of Governors.

GOODLUCKTO YOUAlli!!

THE POLITICS OF HEAL TH CARE REFORM PdlttI

7'41&?/S/IS S7()~

'The 25 Year Struggle for a Professional Community of Interest'

"On September 13, 1972 a meeting of 9 paramedical societies invited by the Canadian Society of Laboratory Technicians, Saskatchewan Branch, was held as a preamble to fomiing a paramedical society for the purposes of collective bargaining".

(HSAS Brief to Dorsey). Most of the people involved knew little about unions or contracts or bargaining . What they had heard about unions was mostly negative. This inaugural organizing event was, in fact, hot about taking a traditional stand for higher wages and better benefits. Rather, it was a fight for ide1rtity-or more accurately the right to choose an identity and, indeed, finally, the right to preserve within a public health care environment what was gradually emerging as a particular and unique community of professional interests.

They believed then (as we believe now) that the large bureaucratic union organizations would make them dependent, passive recipients rather then active participants. Quite simply, they did not want to end up as statistical abstractions or have their community of interests swallowed up within a depersonalized and confrontational union. ;·--What is fascinating about the HSAS h\..__.,ricalstruggle for identity is that,

m arguing for a smaller community of interest, they were, in a profound sense, already anticipating how best to meet the future of health care refom1.. This becomes dear once you see their community of interest philosophy in light of the distinction between institutional care and public (community) health. · In the large impersonal institutional environment the idea is to isolate and U1en cure the disease . These sorts of institutions trade on reductionist notions like unifom1ity, standards of efficiency, and cns1s intervention.

Similarity, large impersonal union bureaucracies trade on notions like uniformity, standards of efficiency and crisis bargaining. In both of these impersonal realms, human interests (individual and community) are more likely to be sacrificed on the utilitarian altar of economic necessity.

The notion of "public health", on the other hand, is the art and science of . preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting physical and mental equilibrium through an understanding of the person as an integrated whole. Here the emphasis is on education and ~wellness" rather than cure. The envirolh_ .tt where public health

refonn initiatives can be best realized is, we suggest, within small communities.

What this means is not the elimination of large hospitals. The challenge facing health care is precisely to effect a reorientation of thinking that would eventually see this sort of conununity understanding of health brought into the hospital enviromuent.

Now the question is what sort of labour relations environment. would fit with a regionalization of health care and a community health understanding? It is clear that the dominant orthodoxy favouring centralized, totalizing, bureaucratic unions is utterly inappropriate . These sorts of institutions caimot restore power to conununity precisely .because they are grounded in an ideology of industrialism where utility and economic, rather than human, values largely dominate.

What clue can HSAS give us to understanding the sort of labour relations environment necessary for health care refonn to flourish? Secondly, how is it that both the govemment and Dorsey utterly failed to mediate real health care refonn? Don't miss Part 2 in the next issue of DISPATCHES!

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PRACTITIONER The definition

of

"health

UNIT support

WHO

WILL

VOTE?

practitioner"

in the Regulations includes health ector employees in the occupations/classifications listed in Table C below . The LRB will that dd employee names to the Practitioner Unit if the employee " ... is in a positio11 e q u i r es , as a in i n i m u m , r e g is t r a t i o It p u rs u a II t t o a Ii A c t g il 1 i II g t h e ex c l u s i v e r i g h t t o II s e a listed in Table C .. .. "[Clause 2(h)] itle or description of an occupation

TABLE C--[Clause 2(h)] HSAS:

xercise/ConditioningTherapist 'CCupational Therapist ,rthoptist harmacist hysical Therapist sychologist sychometrician .espiratoryTherapist ocial Worker peech Language Pathologist

Groups not represented by HSAS: Addiction CounsellorTherapist AdjunctiveTherapist Audiologist Certified Prosthetist & Orthotist Dental Hygienist Dental Therapist EmergencyMedical Technician Health Educator Infection Control Officer Mental Health Therapist · Music Therapist Nutritionist Opthalmic Dispenser Paramedic Public Health Inspector RecreationTherapist

ATTENTION VOTERS !!!

Statements of Employment (draft lists ~ ·ractitioners eligible to vote) and lists ~ anagement/confidential positions to be ·xcluded, will be posted at every work site ·or employees to review . {t is very ~mportant that everyone check that their ames are on the list. Contact the LRB or ur Union if you believe other names or /assifications should be added.

The LRB is limited to determining who ·s in the Practitioner Unitfor the purpose if the Vote, but is prohibited for a perio if three years from making any changes to argaining units created by Dorsey. !!SAS and SGEU each currently ·epresent over 500 members of the 1,650 mployees estimated to be in · the 'ractitioner Unit.

WHY CHOOSE HSAS? There are many in HSAS who recognize that the only sort of union that can promote their particular community of interests is one· that is exclusively oriented toward professionals.

However, over the next several weeks you may hear from other unions that "bigger is better", and that economic issues "trump" community of interest concerns. They will say that ultimately, better wages and benefits, superior

working conditions, etc. can be won only when the union bargaining on your behalf has the strength in numbers to disrupt the employer's operation by withdrawing services. This kind of reasoning has been long held to be the "conventional wisdom" in labour relations. However, these sorts of grandiose claims are more myth than reality.

In the next few issues of Dispatches we will be providing you

with some comparisons of the actual merits of the HSAS contract and the three contracts SGEU currently administers for Practitioners : (PSC, Institutional and Home Care.)

Following is a brief comparison of the costs of HSAS vs SGEU(PSC), dues and benefits. As you will see a smaller more focused union can not only provide better benefits hut at a lower cost to members.

"Gail" is in the Practitioner Unit. She is full -time and earns, $40,000.00 regular earnings per year 1($3,333.33per month). She also earns $1,000.00 a year in over-tinie, standby, call-back, and ~hiftlweekendpremium ($83.33 per month).

BENEFIT

HSAS

SGEU/PSC

Disability Plan Premiums

$14.67 mo. ($176.04 yr.)

$41.67 mo. ($504.04 yr.)

Life Insurance Premiums

$10.95 mo. ($131.40 yr.)

$ 13.75 mo. ($165.00 yr.)

Dental Plan

NO PREMIUM

NO PREMIUM

'

, _,.,/

\...._/

'\ .._

Pension Plan

$139.08 mo. ($1,669yr.)

$166.67 mo. ($2000.04 yr.)

( --.

/'

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TOTAL YEARLY COST

$1976.44

HSAS

PUES:

1.15o/oof gross regular earnings max $35/ mo. ($420/yr.)

$2669.08

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SGEU 1.~% of gross earnings !!Q maximum

"Gail" would pay $51.25/mo. to SGEU or $16.25 less to HSAS per month in dues

NEW HSASAGREEMENT RATIFIED 100% of HSAS members voting in Saskatoon, Regina and Prince Albert, ratified a Memorandum of Agreement with SAHO for the tenn Jan. 1/95 to Dec.1/97. Here are some of the highlights:

*General Wage Increase: July 1/96 1o/o January 1/97 1°/o December 31/97 1°/o Retroactive pay is expected to go through payroll in the next month.

~Employer Initiated Changes to and Confirmed the · Posted Schedule: When the employer initiates changes to the posted and confirmed schedule, e1nployees shall receive double-titne for all shifts so changed.

*Assignment of Extra Hours: The Union and the Employer have agreed to 1neet and discuss the assigrunent of extra hours in each department with a view to mutually determining such assigrunents.

*Stacking Evening· I Night and Weekend Premiums: Copies of the new Collective En1ployees working an evening or Bargaining Agreement are being night shift or weekends will receive distributed to all members. $1. 00 extra per hour (changed fron1 former rate of $0.70.

WELCOME

REGINA

PTA

MEMBERS

We are pleased to welcome into HSAS over 60 members of the Physical Therapists Association! The PT A assigned its argaining rights to HSAS effective January 14, 1997. We have negotiated the HSAS general wage increases for the Physical herapists working at Wascana Rehabilitation Centre, Plains Health Centre and Pasqua Hospital. The other terms and :onditions of the PT A Agreement will continue until re-negotiated by HSAS when general negotiations commence after the xpiry of the present Agreements. As with all collective bargaining agreements which HSAS will be administering after !!~y__9te, we will endeavour to maintain any "better than" provisions.

HSAS 1996-97 PROVINCIAL EXECUTIVE . A Union of Health care Professionals Governed by Professionals

MEMBERS---Elected November 16 1996 (Annual Convention) Solange Lamont, Regina General Hospital ietitians ,ccupational Therapists Susanne Adamson, Plains Health Centre Solmaz Niyazi, Regina General Hospital 'harmacists Marylou Guenther, Royal University Hospital 'sychologists Della Yaroshko, Royal University Hospital !SocialWorkers Bill Feldbrugge, Royal University Hospital peech Language Pathologists 路ascana Home Care/CAS(new) Natalie Horejda, Physical Therapist 路echnologists Spencer Hanson, Cardiovascular Technologist, Royal University Hospital (Except Lab and Radiology)

EXECUTIVE OFFICERS--Elected Dec. 12/96 by incoming Executive Council Members

路Secretary/Treasurer

( _.路

Ted Makeechak, Physical Therapist, St. Paul's Renate Olesko, Laboratory Technologist, Royal University Hospital Dawn Senko, Radiology Technologist, Royal University Hospital ._)

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BOARD OF GOVERNORS--Ex-officio, non-voting Ron Currie, Ed Dewhurst ~,

)

Roberta Ekberg

It will be necessary in the interim to elect new Executive Officers at the Executive Council Meeting on March 19, 1997 to

eplace the technologists being transferred under the Dorsey Regulations to the SEIU Provider Unit in Saskatoon District. ollowing the Practitioner Unit Vote, expected in late May 1997, HSAS will be calling a special Convention in the fall for epresentatives of each of the professional groups from all the Health Districts. We will need to amend the HSAS Constitution nd By-laws to reflect a truly province-wide union composed of diverse professional groups committed to ensuring healthy 'Orkingconditions and quality health care. The HSAS Annual Convention will likely be held in November 1997.

WE NEED YOUR HELP Ill In the upcoming Practitioner Unit vote we will be relying to a large extent on HSAS members contacting other professionals on a one-to-one basis.

If you have any suggestions or wish to help, please contact the HSAS office. a

Health Sciences Association of Saskatchewan Saskatoon, Sask. S7J 3L8 Phone: (306) 955-3399 Fax: (306) 955-3396 Toll-Free: 1-888-565-3399

Executive Director: Tim Slattery Labour Relations Officer: Alice Robert Administrative Assistant: Lynn Regier