Burnaby, B.C. – February 21 marks the beginning of collective bargaining between the nine-union Facilities Bargaining Association (FBA) and the Health Employers Association of BC (HEABC) for a new agreement covering more than 60,000 health care workers across the province.
More than 90 per cent of FBA members are represented by the Hospital Employees’ Union (HEU) and secretary-business manager Lynn Bueckert is the lead spokesperson for the FBA.
“Our members are working hard to provide the best care for patients they can in challenging times,” says Bueckert. “But despite improvements in health care over the last several years, too many of our members are still experiencing staffing shortages and challenging working conditions.”
“We know that British Columbians support a quality health care system and that requires good working conditions for workers to provide the best care for patients, residents and clients," says Bueckert. “That’s why attracting, retaining and supporting frontline health care workers to deliver the care is still the biggest issue facing B.C.’s health system.”
“In bargaining we will seek further improvements to working and caring conditions that will boost frontline staffing, make workplaces safer and lower injury rates,” says Bueckert. “We will also push for wage improvements so that health care workers can focus on delivering the best care possible, while at the same time providing them with a family-supporting income.”
In addition, the FBA will be pushing for wage grid improvements based on the findings from the 2023-2024 wage comparability review that was undertaken by representatives of government, health employers and the FBA. In the last round of bargaining, the FBA negotiated a wage comparability process to address the impact of the BC Liberal wage rollbacks of 2004 that primarily targeted women and racialized workers.
“It’s only fair that health care workers in B.C. receive the same wages as other direct government employees doing similar work,” says Bueckert. "The struggle for equal pay for equal work in health care has been going on for over 50 years and it was only made worse by the deep wage cuts imposed on health care workers in 2004 by the BC Liberals.”
In addition to HEU, the FBA includes the B.C. General Employees’ Union; the International Union of Operating Engineers Local No. 882; the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local No. 230; the BC Nurses’ Union; the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America Local No. 1598; the United Association of Journeymen and Apprentices of the Plumbing and Pipefitting Industry of the United States and Canada Local No. 324; the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades Local No. 138; and the Public and Private Workers of Canada Local No. 5.
The current Facilities collective agreement expires on March 31, 2025.