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Paramedics say no to last offer
Marisa Babic, Surrey Now
Published: Friday, March 27, 2009

Ambulance paramedics are set to strike after their union rejected a last ditch wage offer from its employer to avert job action.

Lee Doney, acting CEO of the Emergency and Health Services Commission, offered the union a one-year contract with a three per cent wage hike, plus a signing bonus for part-time and full-time staff.

"We decided it's time to make a last ditch effort to try and bring this to a conclusion," Doney said Thursday.

"We have offered the union a three-per cent, one-year deal."

The offer includes a signing bonus of up to $2,600 for part-time workers and $4,100 for full-time workers, worth $11 million.

Doney called the entire package "extremely fair" and added the employer can't afford more.

"This is a significant offer and, from the employers' perspective, it exhausts our financial capability," he said.

But John Strohmaier, president of CUPE Local 873, said the offer falls woefully short of the mark.

"This was a last ditch offer to resolve this and it hasn't resolved anything," Strohmaier said.

"All it has done, with certainty, is guarantee that there will be a strike."

In February, the union membership voted 96 per cent in favour of strike action to back up their demands for wage parity with Vancouver police officers and other emergency responders.

The union is seeking a wage hike up to 31 per cent over seven years, a bid Doney has rejected as "completely unrealistic and out of step" with all other collective agreements reached in the province over the past three years.

Strohmaier said the union plans to issue 72-hour strike notice Friday (today).

"The strike will commence on midnight Tuesday night," he said.

Health Minister George Abbott said he's disappointed that the union leadership has rejected the latest offer without giving its membership a chance to vote on it.

"I'm also concerned that the clock is running out in terms of our ability to move forward to a resolution of this collective bargaining dispute," Abbott said, noting the upcoming May 12 provincial election means the legislature will soon be dissolved.

Both sides took strides to reassure the public that a strike won't endanger lives.

The B.C. Ambulance service will continue to operate under essential service levels.

Impacts of the strike will mostly be felt in the administrative sector, where workers will refuse to file billing forms and perform other paper work.

© Surrey Now 2009