Health care workers at a major seniors’ care facility in Victoria voted July 23 to join the Hospital Employees’ Union (HEU), CUPE’s health services division in British Columbia.
HEU now represents more than 300 workers at Selkirk Place including care aides, nurses (LPNs and RNs), rehab assistants, activity aides, clerical staff, housekeepers, and dietary workers.
Selkirk Place is operated by the Ahmon Group and is funded by the Vancouver Island Health Authority. HEU now represents Ahmon Group employees at all their sites in B.C.
“Selkirk Place workers showed courage and leadership throughout this organizing campaign,” says HEU’s Secretary-Business Manager Bonnie Pearson.
“We thank our new members for their vote of confidence and are looking forward to electing a bargaining committee and getting down to the business of negotiating a first collective agreement.”
Selkirk Place employees are the latest group to join HEU in 2012.
Here’s a list of other worksites where employees have joined HEU since January:
- Columbia Garden Village/Golden Life Management Corp. (Invermere)
- Crosstown Clinic/Providence Health Care Society (Vancouver)
- Three Links/Provita Care Management Inc. (Vancouver)
- Kiwanis Care Centre /Provita Care Management Inc. (Vancouver)
- Starbucks operated by Sodexo at Abbotsford Regional Hospital and Cancer Centre (Abbotsford)
In addition, nearly 400 employees at the new Fort St. John Hospital (former employees at the old hospital and the Peace River Haven) chose to join HEU in a representation vote held between HEU and the BC Nurses Union.
“We are very proud that these workers chose HEU and we’ll continue to work hard to improve the working and caring conditions for our members,” says Pearson.