BC’s nurses are preparing for a possibility few have experienced: job action. From mock picket lines and worksite meetings to real-time updates in their pockets, BCNU members are ready for their moment.
In health-care workplaces across the province, a whisper grows into a murmur. Nurses gather in break rooms and get together after hours. They pass out signs and take headcounts, share information and ask questions. Quietly, but insistently, they get ready.
What are they preparing for? Potentially the most significant nurse-led job action in British Columbia's history. If necessary, it could become one of the largest this country has seen.
BCNU has been preparing members for every possible outcome at the bargaining table.
The Nurses Bargaining Association (NBA) negotiates the collective agreement that covers most of BCNU’s 50,000 plus members. The history of job action for NBA members is – proudly – sparse. In its 44-years, the NBA has declared only two province-wide strikes and one overtime ban. These examples are rare but potent. Job action helped secure pay parity for public service nurses in 1990, and delivered major wage increases for NBA members in 1989 and 2001. More importantly, these conflicts hit the reset button on nursing work, reshaping our health-care system for the better – for nurses and patients.
If the NBA bargaining committee calls for job action, the decision will not be taken lightly. BC’s nurses are not spoiling for a fight, but they are fed up with workplace violence, staff shortages and attacks on their hard-earned benefits. They refuse to hold the bag after years of mismanagement, underfunding and short-sighted decisions that have undermined the health-care system. They are willing to do what it takes to defend their rights and their patients.
Members are ready
Sabrina Vogt is a member of the NBA’s Provincial Job Action Committee (PJAC). She, like many nurses, feels a growing determination to fight for her colleagues and her patients. “I’m fired up. If I’ve got to go to war, I’m going to war,” she says. “I’m tired of seeing people treated unfairly. We shouldn’t have to take the fall for bad choices the employer has made.”
If I’ve got to go to war, I’m going to war. I’m tired of seeing people treated unfairly.
Sabrina Vogt
Vogt’s words reflect the sentiment of nurses across BC. Since ramping up bargaining preparations last year, BCNU has held conferences, regional meetings and worksite visits to hear directly from NBA members about their priorities. That active spirit drew thousands of members to events, regional meetings and bargaining committee visits.
Showing up helped members stay tuned in to negotiations. At the same time, these events helped build the person-to-person connections needed to organize on the ground in the event of job action.
BCNU’s 16 regions have been building on that momentum to strengthen local support. In the interior, BCNU East Kootenay region members held picket line dress rehearsals to iron out the kinks well ahead of a potential strike.
Gina Neumann is a PJAC member and BCNU East Kootenay regional treasurer. “We set up a picket line and went through every possible scenario: What do you do if you work from home? Where do members park? What forms do they need?” For Neumann, the drill was not only successful from a planning perspective; it showed her that her region has the right attitude when it comes to preparation. “That experiential learning starts conversations,” she says. “The mock strike was incredibly well received. It was the highest-rated event at our annual general meeting.”
While there are strong indicators that members are preparing for job action – taking BCNU’s online job action modules, subscribing to bargaining updates and downloading the BCNU Connect app – it's the shared sense of purpose that has PJAC members most energized.
“There’s a fire in the belly right now,” says BCNU Okanagan Similkameen region steward and PJAC member Tannis Keteca. “Enough members are saying, ‘We’re tired of this. We need to push back.’” According to Keteca, the PJAC is working to channel that momentum into a plan for success in the event of job action. “Capture that energy, and we’ll get somewhere,” she says.
BCNU is Ready
While union members’ energy, enthusiasm and solidarity are the most important ingredients, anyone who has been involved knows there are many logistics behind job action. That’s why BCNU has been pulling out all the stops to get ready to support NBA members in defending their rights.
“I told the staff that it's all hands on deck,” says BCNU CEO and NBA lead negotiator Jim Gould. “We’re prepared to use every tool at our disposal to protect NBA members’ rights and secure a fair agreement. That includes potentially asking members to do what it takes to defend their rights and their patients. Because we know how much power nurses hold in our health-care system.”
The union has held training sessions for staff and distributed materials to the regions. Strike task forces are ready to consider every detail before a single picket sign is raised. Administrative staff have digitized paper job action forms to track every moment on the picket line. The team launched a brand-new app to give members down-to-the-minute updates – and to rapidly deploy them where they are needed during job action.
