About 300 CUPE paramedicals in the BC Lower Mainland participated last week in a province-wide job action to press for a new contract settlement.
Paramedicals work at the community level in roles such as physiotherapists, speech language pathologists, nutritionists and dental hygienists.
Each day different occupational categories are walking off the job - audiologists one day, public health inspectors another, lab technicians a third - building to a walkout by all paramedicals Saturday, Sunday and Monday.
The members of Locals 15, 718 and 389, transferred from their former municipal employees to the new regional health employers, are among 5000 paramedicals seeking a first-time province-wide agreement. With members of HEU and other unions, they are pressing for wage and benefit parity, protection for flexible hours and reimbursement of travel costs.