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For Immediate Release
October 23, 2003
Nurses to rally at Clint Dunford's office
Friday, October 24, 2003
11 am to 1 pm
Clint Dunford's Office 404-8 St. South Lethbridge
Nurses from the Chinook Region are holding a rally on Oct 24, 2003 to pressure their Region to go back to bargaining. The rally will be outside the Constituency office of Human Resources and Employment Minister Clint Dunford. Dunford has agreed to appoint arbitration panels to settle the new nurses’ contract.
The rally is part of a province-wide campaign by nurses to motivate the Health Regions to return to contract talks and to point out the problems with imposing an agreement. The Health Regions have refused to continue talks since the release of the mediator’s recommendations in July, although they did receive a new proposal from UNA on September 18.
The Health Regions say they want arbitration to settle the new contract. Imposing an unsafe agreement with arbitration or legislation is unacceptable, says UNA.
Negotiations are the only way to safer, quality health care.
Nurses maintain that arbitration panels (stacked with two Employer representatives –one from the government and one from the Regions – and only one representative of nurses) are a way to force an unsafe contract on nurses.
“The Regions want to institute their plan to move nurses from hospital to hospital, to juggle nurses around to deal with inadequate staffing. It’s a plan that’s dangerous for patients,” says Barb Charles, RN a provincial UNA executive board member from Chinook. “Health Regions need to listen to nurses about what is needed for safe care conditions. They need to negotiate with us. They cannot rely on a stacked arbitration panel to reach a good contract.”
The nurses’ campaign also includes radio and newspaper advertising.
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