(The following article is from the June 1-15, 2009, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St., Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)

By Sam Hammond

In British Columbia, there is a creature of the Emergency and Health Services Act called the Emergency and Health Services Commission (EHSC), which operates the British Columbia Ambulance Service (BCAS). While these are stand alone, fully funded government agencies, in reality they operate very closely under the BC Ministry of Health Services.

     Prior to the 1973 Foulkes Commission report ("Health Security for British Columbians"), ambulance services had been provided by a hodgepodge of volunteer groups, fire departments, funeral homes and private enterprises. Acting on the report, the BC government passed the Emergency and Health Services Act, which created the EHSC and BCAS. The 3500 employees of the BCAS, the Ambulance Paramedics of BC, working in 190 ambulance stations and the Patient Transfer Fleet, are represented by CUPE Local 873.

     The ambulance service is deteriorating rapidly, because of direct neglect and the general starvation of funding to the health care system. For instance, the cost-saving centralization of specialized services in urban centres has necessitated more patient transfers onto a fleet that has remained static in size. This means that emergency response ambulances must be used to supplement patient transfers, leaving communities with inadequate or no emergency response for periods of time.

     With a growing population, and an increasing percentage of seniors, the number of emergency response calls rose 150,000 from the year 2000 to 2006, and more since then. But in the last ten years, the number of ambulances and paramedics has remained the same. The target of a nine minute response has slipped in the last several years to an average of fifteen minutes. These minutes can cost lives.

     In early February, the Ambulance Paramedics of British Columbia launched the "Critical Condition Campaign" to expose the rapid decline of ambulance service and to enlist public support to reverse the damage. There have been newspaper ads and the launch of the http://www.saveourparamedics.com website.

     The historic parity of emergency response workers (paramedics, police and fire-fighters) has disappeared over the years, and the paramedics want to restore it. If the city of Vancouver is used as an example the wage gap is $10.46 with police and $6.13 with fire-fighters (who have also slipped from parity).

     CUPE Local 873 wants to achieve parity over a seven year period, which would require a 22-27% wage increase spread over the seven years. This is certainly a very patient and responsible offer. In response, on March 27 the British Columbia Ambulance Service made "a last ditch offer" of 3% over one year, dangling the traditional carrot of a signing bonus.

     With the authority of a 96% strike mandate from early February, CUPE Local 873 president John Strohmaier rejected the offer as completely inadequate and set a 72 hour strike deadline.

     But Lee Doney, CEO of the Emergency and Health Services Commission, said "this is a significant offer and, from the employers' perspective, it exhausts our financial capability", referring to the limit the Campbell government has put on the provision of health services.

     George Abbott, Health Minister at the time, said he was disappointed that the union had rejected the offer without letting the members vote on it. The union got its mandate from a 96% strike vote achieved through a mail-in ballot, with 70% of members voting. If British Columbia citizens had voted in these numbers, we would probably have a different government today. The union has a democratic mandate, which the Campbell government does not. So much for ministerial BS.

     The paramedics face the same challenge, the same pending escalation of financial starvation, that all B.C. public sector workers are facing. The stated aim of the Liberals during the election campaign was to downsize services. This will be done by financial starvation, deteriorating services and privatization.

     Many public sector workers, and especially paramedics, cannot withdraw their labour because they are an "essential service". The paramedics are pledged to guarantee public safety during their job action; indeed, their entire working lives are dedicated to public safety. Essential service means that you cannot strike. When lives are at stake, there has never been an occasion where trade union members have abandoned their patients.

     It is too bad that those who cannot strike can still be insulted, demeaned, overworked, laid off and privatized. This is not a level playing field. Please support the B.C. paramedics and their fight for parity and improved public emergency pre-hospital health care.