By Vanessa Ybarra

Paramedics call for same bargaining rights as police and fire

Jan 27, 2017 | 4:15 PM

KAMLOOPS — They may play a large part in saving lives, but B.C paramedics say they aren’t being recognized when it comes to collective bargaining agreements.

As it stands, paramedic unions fall under the same Health Authorities Act as hospital staff, including janitors and cafeteria workers. 

Keri Hardy and Daniel Bott are one of 800 canvassers in B.C calling for paramedics to switch to the Fire and Police Services Collective Bargaining Act. 

“The way that it’s set up right now, we’re part of a larger union that’s part of the hospital support workers union,” said Chase paramedic Daniel Bott. “That part of the union has different agendas than we do.”

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“If anything’s to happen, we don’t really have a lot of say,” said Kamloops paramedic Keri Hardy. “If we want to go further with anything, we need to be in a union or agreement that’s going to support us more.”

Under the current Health Authorities Act, paramedics have the right to strike.

Bott says by joining the police officers and firefighters bargaining act, paramedics will lose that right, ultimately improving emergency services in the Kamloops region.

“By becoming an essential service and becoming a part of the essential service act, we’re going to ensure we’re never going to be out of service, never go out of strike, never going to be locked out,” said Bott.” Instead of having to negotiate, we would just go to a third-party arbitration.”

In 2009 paramedics held a province-wide strike calling for wage increases, among other industry improvements.

Paramedic salaries may generally be lower than firefighters or police officers, but workers say it isn’t the driving force in switching bargaining agreements.

“Nobody’s going to say no to more money,” said Bott. “But as it stands now, we as paramedics, we as dispatchers want to ensure people know we’re going to be there when they need us.”

In early January paramedics spearheaded an Initiative Act, calling for support in increasing paramedic bargaining rights.

“We need 10% of the voting public, so in the South and North-Thompson ridings, we would need a total of 8,000 signatures.

So far more than 1,000 votes have been collected ahead of the April 10th deadline.

“It’s been really good,” said Hardy.

If the required signatures are collected, the petition will be presented to the B.C legislature, the call for change one of paramedics most important yet.

“This would just make life so much easier for everyone,” said Bott.