The Health Care / Support Division Newsletter: February 2012
CHAIR’S REPORT – Jill McIllwraith
The next two years are going to be busy ones for our Sector 11 Executives. Key issues we will be working on are;
- December, releasing a video to highlight the work of our bargaining units
- Participating in OPSEU’s anti-austerity campaigns
- Continuing with our work on coordinated bargaining
- RPN issues: These are new to the table
The Sector 11 Executive has heard the issues that RPNs in our sector are experiencing. Other Health Sector RPNs are experiencing similar issues as well. Our Sector 11 Executive along with the Health Care Divisional Council will be collaborating to further research and provide feedback on these issues affecting the RPNs.
Our goal is to present the findings to our members at the next BPS conference. As always, we encourage the members to keep the executive informed of their local issues in their quarterly updates.
If you have a story or are experiencing an issue in your workplace tell Rick Janson (rjanson@opseu.org) about it.
Your story could be the next Diablogue topic!
Coordinated Bargaining and the Pre-bargaining Conference
On October 5, 2011 the Hospital Support Sector held its second Pre-Bargaining Conference. Sector 11 has entered into its second phase of Coordinated Bargaining.
In our previous newsletters we established “What Coordinated Bargaining Is”. In our first round of coordinated bargaining, we had approximately nine locals going into bargaining. Now the majority of bargaining units within our sector have put forth or will be bringing forward equity issues which were recommended to members.
With the hard work of our great negotiators, OPSEU researchers, staff and bargaining conference participants, we were able to identify the industry standards in all our hospital contracts across the province. We have identified great variances in some language and monetary issues. We are striving to achieve superior language and monetary equality for ALL Sector 11 bargaining units.
Participants who attended the conference were able to share and compare concerns. Participants identified two new issues that were agreed upon and will be recommended to bargaining teams for addition to our coordinated bargaining strategy.
All the participants of the bargaining conference were provided with a binder and CD full of information to assist bargaining teams as they prepare for negotiations.
Holding the conference gave members an opportunity to network and communicate with other hospital support bargaining units, build our strength and set common goals.
Moving forward, locals entering into bargaining are welcome to participate in regularly scheduled conference calls. This will mean that bargaining units can keep in touch and support each other as we work to achieve our desired goals.
In solidarity
Harry Sangha,
Collective Bargaining
Hospital Support – Sector 11 2011 BPS Conference Sector 11 door prize winner was Andy Wiercindki.
Andy is 2nd Vice President for Local 715. Congratulations for winning a digital camera and accessories valued at over $200.
The Executive is looking forward to seeing everyone at the next BPS conference
