The Vancouver Island Health Authority is moving ahead with its privatization plans, contracting out more than 1,000 jobs in housekeeping and food services to Crothall Services Canada, a subsidiary of UK multinational Compass Group.
The authority claims the privatization plan will save $10 million annually, as wages are slashed to as low as $9 an hour and corners are cut.
Meanwhile, the Campbell government continues to show no mercy to working families, imposing an 11 per cent wage cut on health care workers throughout the province. Theyve made more savings than they are going to make through privatization, says Bonnie Youngman of the Hospital Employees Union (HEU). Theres no reason to privatize.
But theres good news too. BCs Labour Relations Board has rejected so-called partnership agreements between the Industrial Wood and Allied Workers of Canada (IWA) and two multinational privateers, Sodexho and Aramark, covering health care jobs that have been contracted out in Vancouver and Abbotsford. The ruling opens the door for the certification of HEU as the bargaining agent for these privatized workers.