President's Message

The Nurses' Bargaining Association (NBA) has received recommendations for settlement from mediators Amanda Rogers and Vince Ready. After several days of intensive mediation, the recommendations lay out a path to conclude this round of bargaining.

Your NBA provincial bargaining committee thoroughly reviewed every recommendation and discussed every option available to us. After careful consideration, we made the decision to accept the recommendations, and BCNU Council voted to endorse them. 

This wasn't an easy decision. But it is one we believe gives nurses the best opportunity to secure further improvements.

Throughout this round of bargaining, the employer maintained it could not move beyond the government's bargaining mandate. Even after nurses took unprecedented job action, the employer insisted its hands were tied.

Among the recommendations presented by the mediators is a solution that changes that narrative and gives members the strongest opportunity to secure further improvements through binding arbitration.
 
Through binding arbitration, an arbitrator will consider the NBA’s compensation demands without the restriction of the “me-too” clause or the government’s bargaining mandate. That means our case for improved wages and other monetary gains can be considered on its own merits. We believe this provides the strongest available path to achieving gains that simply were not possible at the bargaining table.
 
The NBA is working to secure dates for voluntary binding arbitration and anticipates these being scheduled in the fall.
 
Importantly, these recommendations go beyond compensation. They include a province-wide review of violence in health care and a comprehensive review of non-nursing duties. These commitments did not happen by accident. They reflect the extraordinary strength and solidarity members have shown throughout this round of bargaining. Your job action helped create an opportunity to make meaningful progress beyond wages and to reshape nursing practice in British Columbia.
 
Through job action, nurses forced government, employers and the public to confront the realities of working in today’s health-care system. You brought longstanding issues, including non-nursing duties, workplace violence and unsafe workloads to the forefront in a way that has never happened before. These issues are reflected in these recommendations because nurses refused to let them be pushed aside. 
 
With the mediators’ recommendations accepted, the terms of settlement of the NBA provincial collective agreement agreed to on May 22, along with the additional terms agreed to on July 7, now form the basis of the new contract.
 
With these recommendations in place, our province-wide job action will conclude. Members will cease all job action effective midnight on Friday, July 24.
 
But this is not the end of our fight.
 
None of us believes the health-care system will be transformed overnight. The recommendations are an important step, but lasting change will require continued advocacy, solidarity and pressure to ensure these commitments lead to meaningful improvements. This is our ongoing collective work.
 
We leave this round of bargaining having pushed these issues further than they have been before. That happened because nurses across this province came together, stayed united and refused to accept the status quo. 
 
I want to thank every member who took part in our fight. Whether you joined a picket line, refused non-nursing duties or supported your colleagues, every action mattered and helped get us to where we are today.
 
Please take the time to read the recommendations, ask questions  and stay engaged. Whatever comes next, we'll face it the same way  we've faced everything else in this round of bargaining: together. 

Adriane Gear
President, BC Nurses' Union
On behalf of the NBA Bargaining Committee