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May 4, 1999
BC Nurses participate in their first CLC convention
For the first time ever, representatives of BC's 25,000 unionized nurses are participating as delegates and observers at a convention of the Canadian Labour Congress starting today.
They're joining nurses from five other provinces who are also attending their first CLC convention, after affiliating to the national labour body during the past two years.
The presence of nurses as part of the Canadian labour movement sends a strong message to governments, particularly to the federal government, which has balanced its books by cutting back severely on transfer payments for health care, social assistance and higher education," says Cathy Ferguson, president of the BC Nurses' Union. "The message is that nurses will continue to fight back against cuts and against the factors that have contributed to the serious nursing shortage now confronting the country. In that fight, nurses will have the support of the entire labour movement, representing 2.5 million unionized people in Canada."
Ferguson said the other message is that the labour movement stands behind nurses in their fight to maintain collective bargaining rights, in light of back-to-work legislation that ended recent strikes in Saskatchewan and Newfoundland.
The 48 BC nurses at the CLC convention are part of a delegation representing the National Federation of Nurses' Unions. NFNU is composed of provincial nurses' unions from six provinces. The BC Nurses' Union was one of the first of NFNU's provincial affiliates to join the CLC in 1997. The CLC's last convention was in 1996. This year's convention is being held in Toronto.
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