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March 15, 2001
Nurses: budget encouraging, now it’s time for the same message to come to the bargaining table
Without paying globally competitive wages to retain and recruit the nurses we need in BC, much of the new health care spending will be hollow, because there won’t be enough nurses to deliver the care patients require and the government is prepared to fund
BC nurses are encouraged the provincial budget recognizes the biggest challenges facing our health care system today: the nursing shortage and the need to pay nurses what they’re worth.
Now it’s time for Victoria to deliver the same message to negotiators for the province’s health employers, who are refusing to even make an offer of increased compensation for BC nurses at the bargaining table.
"We’re especially pleased the Finance Ministry’s strategic plan declares the target for more spending is ‘to keep nurses pay and benefits competitive with other jurisdictions’," says Debra McPherson, president elect of the BC Nurses’ Union. "And it’s encouraging the government is devoting half of all new spending to health care, which includes an ambitious capital spending program on new and upgraded facilities, and increases for home support and mental health.
"But without paying globally competitive wages to retain and recruit the nurses we need in BC, much of the spending on new services will be ineffective, because if the nurses aren’t there, the services won’t be delivered," McPherson says. BC currently has more than 1,000 vacant positions for Registered Nurses and Registered Psychiatric Nurses, and that means emergency rooms are closing, operations are being cancelled and pregnant women are being transfered out of their communities.
In his budget speech, Finance Minister Paul Ramsey says the budget will provide necessary funds to address the nursing shortage and "to pay nurses what they’re worth".
However, the government’s message has not got through to health care employers at the bargaining table. Instead, they’re insisting on a long list of concession demands and are refusing to table any wage offer at all.
"If the government wants its commitment to health care and to solving the nursing shortage to be translated into reality, it better instruct health care employer negotiators to implement the government’s priorities," McPherson says.
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