On May 17, the Tory government introduced a new
bill to govern bargaining for private sector ambulance workers.
It’s Bill 58 - An Act to Ensure the
Provision of Essential Ambulance Services in the Event of a Strike or
Lockout of Ambulance Workers.
Bill 58 requires the union to negotiate an
essential services agreement, similar to the arrangements under the
Crown Employees Collective Bargaining Act (CECBA).
It will effectively mean that any strike in the
ambulance sector is ineffective. The union would have to go on strike,
ineffectively. Then the union would have to go the Labour Board to
prove that the strike was ineffective before gaining a limited right
to go to binding arbitration.
The government has curbed the arbitrators’
powers to make a just determination by deciding who will get the job,
what issues they can rule on, and what limits they will have on their
powers to award a just settlement.
OPSEU recognized that ambulance bargaining was
under pressure in 1999, with services being downloaded to
municipalities.
A press release issued at that time urged the
government to legislate equal treatment for all emergency services to
avoid strikes by ambulance paramedics.
“It’s really very simple,” said President
Leah Casselman. “Give paramedics the same right to arbitration as
firefighters and police.”
Firefighters and police do not have the right to
strike in Ontario. They settle their bargaining disputes by referring
them to a three-person arbitration panel.
Paramedics operate under several bargaining
regimes:
- Ambulance services run by municipalities have
the full right to strike.
- Ambulance services run by hospitals fall
under the Hospital Labour Disputes Arbitration Act and are denied
the right to strike.
- Ambulance services run by independent
operators who run Crown agencies fall under CECBA and may strike
after negotiating essential services.
- Ambulance services not named to the Crown
have the full right to strike.
Bill 58 will apply to those who now have the
right to strike.
“We told them in August, 1999, that
downloading would produce chaos unless the government put rules in
place,” said Casselman.
“The obvious answer is to recognize that
paramedics’ work is an essential service, and treat these workers
the same way as their counterparts in police and fire departments.”
Bill 58 does not do this, she said.
“Instead, it gathers together all the worst
elements of CECBA, and adds its own vicious features that will ensure
that ambulance paramedics get lousy collective agreements.
“It’s an insult to dedicated hard-working
professionals.”
She urged members to phone their MPPs and
express their outrage. MPPs will be in their constituency offices this
week, so they should be available.
Click
here for a full analysis of Bill 58.
OPSEU ActionFax is an electronic publication of the Ontario Public
Service Employees Union. Original authorized for distribution by Leah
Casselman, president.
