Vancouver Forum: Legislated end to Paramedics Labour Dispute?

X Y Z, on 12 November 2009 - 09:26 PM, said:

well the math test is more important, since the alternative is to still voice your opinion via the petition and educate those around you who don't understand wha the HST will mean for the future of students, business and anyone who knows that middle class is almost a fictional story.

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bigjohnstud, on 12 November 2009 - 09:40 PM, said:

I am not a fool dumbass, and the people who think they can afford what you say are usually in drug dealing and end up with a cap in their ass.

Wires, on 12 November 2009 - 10:10 PM, said:

M?!? is that you?
if it is what have you been up too?
do you still talk to DTO

This post has been edited by randytheram2: 12 November 2009 - 10:14 PM

randytheram2, on 12 November 2009 - 10:13 PM, said:

I've never talked to DTO, he only messaged me on DV to meet for coffee and freaked out when I said I wouldn't.

Goat Boy©, on 12 November 2009 - 08:22 AM, said:

On average vancouver cars do 9 calls per day. The average length of call is 1 hour 20 minutes. So 11.7 out of 12 hours is our "utilization." We have been over 90% utilization for more than 4 years now. There are days that I leave the station at 6:30am, and don't see the station again until 6:30pm. Transfer ambulances are over 100% utilization (meaning they go into overtime most days). Transfer cars finally got a scheduled 30 minute lunch break recently. Emergency ambulances do not get a scheduled lunch break. You eat on the way to the next call. Sometimes you switch drivers so the other guy can eat.

We are out just as much as the police department. Their utilization and ours are comparable. They're in the lead one month, we lead the next, and fire is always far behind because there aren't alot of fires any more. Fire does respond to medical calls, but they lack the training, skill, and tools that ambulance crews have. In BC fire departments respond to medical calls because our ambulance utilization is so high that we don't always have an available ambulance close enough to repsond within a reasonable amount of time. More ambulances would be nice; the chronic underfunding is killing us in more ways than just wages.

Soiled Midget Negligee, on 12 November 2009 - 10:34 AM, said:

When I first heard the slogan I didn't get it either.

At any business or workplace, the wages you pay determine the quality of the employee over time. For example there is a reason why young students with no training and no experience work at McDonalds. There is a reason that the most educated best and brightest work at Google. Those are two extremes but the theory is that if you pay better wages, you will attract a better quality of employee and I think that theory is pretty reasonable.

What that slogan is saying is that Campbell would love to privatize us and make it a $10/hr job for students to do. We are saying the public would be safer and better taken care of with people who can dedicate their entire careers to learning this job. Who do you want to show up to do CPR to your family member? An 18 year old with a two week course on cpr? Or a guy who's dedicated his life to doing this, has the training and experience to do it properly and give your loved one the best possible chance of survival? Being in my position, I can tell you that who shows up makes a BIG difference. But the choice is really up to you.

Make no mistake, this is a battle for your healthcare. We have already had countless seasoned paramedics with years of training and experience leave to join the police force or other organization because of money. One even left to work as a driver for translink because that pays more money.

For the love of pete, a vancouver city garbage man makes more than $20.17/hour. And I'm sure he gets benefits as well. I don't get those benefits for 6 years. No offence intended to garbage people.

So while on the face of it, it may be about money, in the end it is about the quality of frontline healthcare. On strike to save our profession from being privatized, and on strike to save lives in the process.

This post has been edited by texv: 13 November 2009 - 01:06 AM

http://www.theglobea...article1363389/

Hate to say I told you so, but it was pretty obvious this was going to happen. No more required overtime means ambulance shortage. Kevin Falcon created this mess. He should have just left us under the ESO that way we'd all have to do overtime and staff ambulances. Everyone is exhausted from all the overtime over the last 7 months, it's no wonder they're taking time off.

let the fire departments take them over...end of story.

white flu

love it

texv, on 13 November 2009 - 10:53 PM, said:

I'd like to think that between the HST & crap like this Gordo has sealed the deal for himself......but between NDP incompetence & BC voter short memories I'm not so certain of that.

texv, on 13 November 2009 - 10:53 PM, said:

Not directly related to this post, but nonetheless related...

BC labour laws allow the employer to force employees to work overtime in an emergency.

I also know that many employers use the tactic of forced overtime, as it is cheaper than hiring new employees.

So, could there be repercussions for refusing to work overtime?

razzmatazz, on 14 November 2009 - 05:50 AM, said:

What emergency? It's friday.. there was no big emergency. No disasters. No earthquakes. They don't have enough full-time staff for their regular ambulances. But that is a failure to plan. And a failure to plan on their part does not constitute an emergency on my part.

It is cheaper for them to rely on forced OT. No extra benefits. And OT is not time and a half on the ambulances, it is 1.23 times normal. So very cheap for them.

You will now see them drag us into the Labour Relations Board. This is interesting. It is a court designed by the government as a buffer. Unions don't get to go to a real court, they have to go to this kangaroo court. The judge for our case was appointed by the government, and used to work in the same office as our CEO Lee Doney. They are buddies. So tell me how that's fair?

And the guy above who said let fire take them over? I'd love it. Give me their wages and benefits and a blue uniform. Sign me up.

texv, on 14 November 2009 - 09:44 AM, said:

Ya I think that would be best, it seems to work pretty good in the u.s and parts of Canada. However, I'm not sure how the process would work when it comes to switching ambulance paramedics over to firefighters, I am guessing many would lose their jobs and getting hired might be based on seniority... but im not sure. Maybe the ambulance service would become a different section of the fire department. Do you think most ambulance paramedics would support this? I don't think the switch would be a simple process.

batman, on 14 November 2009 - 03:53 PM, said:

Short answer is I don't know. But I personally would love it. But it won't fix anything and the problem doesn't go away for them with this scenario though.. the budget just shifts to the municipalites. Its not like the have a bunch of extra fire trucks waiting around with nothing to do.. Those guys are already relatively busy. And there's no where to put a stretcher in a fire truck. So to handle the call volume they would need to take all the ambulances and paint them red and hire all the staff to staff them.. so its just moving the problem around. Nothing really gets solved this way.

The other problem with that scenario is that it only works in the cities. The rest of rural BC works on volunteer fire departments with very little training and little to no pay. And if there is no volunteer fire for an area, then they simply let houses burn to the ground and it falls on the forest service to protect the forests around the houses. That isn't acceptable with people's health though, we need to cover the entire province.

My point is that much of BC doesn't have a fire depaertment capable of handing this. You could have a scenario where the cities go under the fire departments, and the rural areas remain "BC Ambulance." I'm not saying its the best idea, but anything is better than the current mess.

This post has been edited by texv: 14 November 2009 - 04:33 PM

Well, if what goes around comes around, one fine day mr. Campbell is going to get drunk again, get behind the wheel again, only this time his car will kiss a power pole, and there will be no one around who can respond quick enough. It would be poetic justice.

Too bad what goes around doesn't really come around.

texv, on 14 November 2009 - 04:31 PM, said:

good point...I didn't think about the rural areas and how they would be affected by this.

More than 50 B.C. paramedics book off Saturday shifts
Escalating labour dispute leaves 23 ambulances out of service in the Lower Mainland, the Fraser Valley and the Sea-to-Sky corridor

http://www.theglobea...e+International

Nat, on 15 November 2009 - 09:11 AM, said:

To be clear, our union hasn't told us to book off sick, and no one is organizing this as far as I know. Actually our union sent us a memo telling us NOT to take matters into our own hands. I think a combination of things are happening.

1. This is the first weekend since being legislated back. We have been working constant overtime prior to this because the court threatened us with fines and jail time if we didn't work overtime. Now that order is rescinded and we are allowed to NOT work overtime if we choose not to. So you have alot of people finally able to take a weekend off and they are all doing it at the same time unfortunately.

2. There is alot of anger about our rights being trampled on, and any time you take away rights from a group of people there is likely going to be backlash. I don't condone it, and I haven't heard anything directly saying that its happening, but whether an individual paramedic chooses to work overtime or not is his own right now that the essential service order is lifted. Thanks to a brilliant Kevin Falcon move.

3. Our employer has been dependant on overtime for a long time to staff the cars. Likely because they don't have to hire new full-time employees and can pay fewer benefits. They have run the service into the ground and are finally reaping what they have sewen.

This post has been edited by texv: 15 November 2009 - 12:07 PM

Nat, on 15 November 2009 - 09:11 AM, said:

Why are 50 people booking off work in the heat of cold and flu season news?

RealWoman, on 15 November 2009 - 01:06 PM, said:

I think maybe you answered your own question. And maybe I can add another point:

4. Alot of paramedics are actually sick? We respond to alot of people with the flu.. those people are contagious, we are not immune to getting sick ourselves, and apparently right now is the peak of the second wave of H1N1. Some of us have gotten the vaccine, but not everyone.

mass resignations would work if not for our love of seniority, vacation time and pensions. If nurses wouldn't do it, the paramedics certainly won't

texv, on 15 November 2009 - 03:48 PM, said:

Well I know no official job action has been sanctioned by the union so it's either workers doing their own thing, or people are actually sick/unable to work.

I find it interesting that the recent stories being reported are that the BC Ambulance Service withdrew it's LBR claim....

They didn't! They had an emergency meeting on Saturday at the LBR and their claim was unfounded so they withdrew it. Why don't you hear the media reporting this?

And now they have appointed Chris Trumpy to head the industrial inquiry commission. He is a long time liberal and was the pointman in the deal to sell BC Rail. And now he is going to dismantle the BC Ambulance Service and privatize it.

So the "Save our Paramedics" slogan was true after all. You are losing your ambulance service. In a year, it will be private, and you will have to pay for each call. In the states, they charge upwards of $1200 dollars for a call. Right now the cost in BC is $80.

So thanks to the liberals, as a tax payer you will save a bunch of money on the ambulance service. If you ever need to call one, you will get a cheap poorly trained low paid person show up with no skills or tools. He will throw you in the truck and drive off with you.. remeniscient of a meat wagon. And the bill will be over a thousand bucks.

Send your thank-you notes to the liberals.

www.saveourparamedics.com