02) GREETINGS TO HOSPITAL EMPLOYEES UNION
Greetings to the 29th Biennial Convention of the Hospital Employees Union, from the BC Labour Bureau of the Communist Party of Canada
The Communist Party of Canada extends greetings to the Hospital Employees' Union at its 29th Biennial Convention, and on the occasion of the HEU's 70th anniversary. Your union has a proud historic record of defending the interests of workers in the health care sector, and fighting to achieve equality gains for women and other groups. Our party stands in full solidarity with the HEU in its struggle against endless attacks on public services such as health care, and on health care unions and on their members, by big business and the governments that serve the corporate drive to privatize, contract out, and smash the union movement. We also support the HEU in opposing raids and divisions which only benefit the employers.
Similar anti‑union attacks are taking place across the country and around the world. Just weeks ago, Nova Scotia's Liberal government passed Bill 1, claiming it will cut costs by amalgamating health regions. We know from experience in British Columbia that such amalgamations inevitably lead to privatization, such as public private partnerships (P3s), and fragmenting the unity of the unions and their members. It also means less consultation and involvement of health care workers and the general public, and more attacks on trade union rights. Nova Scotia health sector workers have been legislated into four government‑imposed bargaining units and assigned to unions at the whim of the employer. This goes against the Charter of Rights and Freedoms which includes the freedom of association. This agenda sounds very familiar to HEU members!
The equivalent legislation in B.C., Bill 29, was eventually thrown out in part by the courts, but this unrelenting neoliberal offensive continues. A counteroffensive is needed. Without such a fightback, everything that working people, the union movement and others fought for (such as Doctor Norman Bethune and Tommy Douglas who were in the forefront to establish universal Medicare) will be destroyed. The union movement can't depend on the courts in this struggle, especially given the rightward drift of the NDP, the "party of labour" which fails to resist the corporate agenda. Labour must have an independent political action strategy of its own, to challenge big business and its relentless drive for profits, and to defeat right wing governments propped up by the corporations. Nor can labour win this battle alone. A fighting alliance of all progressive and democratic forces, including the trade union movement, must be built to demand policies that put working people before private profits.
The HEU must be especially congratulated on achieving its last collective agreement in the facilities sector. Your union can truly take pride in preserving its integrity under very difficult circumstances, against a BC Liberal government which relentlessly targets hospital workers. Our Party wishes HEU delegates a successful 29th convention!
(The above article is from the November 1-15, 2014, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading socialist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $45 US per year; other overseas readers - $45 US or $50 CDN per year. Send to People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, BC, V5L 3J1.)