More than 4,000 BC health support workers vote for strike to protect jobs and boost wages

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BURNABY (NEWS1130) – Picket lines won’t go up anytime soon, but support workers at 75 hospitals and extended care facilities have voted 96 per cent in favour of job action.

Key issues include job protection and better wages for Hospital Employees Union members in Metro Vancouver, the Fraser Valley, southern Vancouver Island and the Sunshine Coast.

Jennifer Whiteside with the HEU says the strong strike mandate sends a clear message not only to the private employers, but to the new BC government funding those contracts.

“Whoever holds the reins of power in Victoria, we are going to continue to advocate in the strongest way possible for stability and decency for our members who provide very important services. That’s not going to change no matter who’s sitting in Victoria.”

Whiteside adds negotiations, which have been underway for the past year, are still in the early stage.

“The fact that we’ve taken a strike vote and had such a strong return from that vote certainly doesn’t mean that there will be picket lines going up in front of hospitals. It sends a very clear message –these individuals who perform such critical work in our health care system need to be taken seriously.”

The mostly housekeeping and dietary workers currently have collective agreements with four private, multi-national employers: Compass-Marquise, Sodexo, Aramark and Acciona.

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