The BC Nurses Union is already suspended from provincial and national labour umbrella groups in response to a controversial attempt to raid another health care union’s membership.
It's now confronted with a rank and file rebellion among some of its own member, the Tyee has learned.
Insurgent nurses are circulating a petition condemning recent steps taken by BCNU leadership to launch a raid on the Hospital Employees Union. It also calls for an emergency convention of union membership to debate and vote on the raid.
The petition claims “These changes are being rammed through without a membership vote. The BCNU 2009 convention made no decisions, as the leadership chose not to introduce any resolution calling for the LPN sign up. There has been no resolution. There has been no membership-wide discussion. There has been no membership vote.”
The petition claims that an “overwhelming majority of the South Fraser Valley region adopted a motion calling on BCNU to stop the LPN raid until there has been a union-wide discussion and membership referendum.”
The petition, launched in mid October, will be filed with BCNU leadership sometime in mid to late November, according to sources close to the project. It is signed by 13 BCNU members.
According to the petition text, if the activists sign up 1,000 BCNU members, it will trigger an emergency convention. Contacted by the Tyee, several of the petition sponsors indicated they were unwilling to speak to media about the petition until it is formally lodged with their leadership in November.
Retired BCNU activist Sandy Bauer served as a shop steward for two decades and represented her union on the Squamish and District Labour Committee for eleven years. She told the Tyee in a recent phone interview that she was “embarrassed” by the raid on HEU.
“I absolutely want the raid cancelled,” she said on October 28. “What we’re doing here makes me physically ill.”
BCNU president Debra McPherson spoke to the Tyee by phone on the morning of October 29. She confirmed the petition’s claim that her union had not conducted a vote to mandate the current raid on HEU. And that the South Fraser Valley region of BCNU had passed a resolution demanding a membership vote on the raid.
But she said her union’s membership endorsed a constitution in the 1990s that called for organizing “nurses and other allied health care workers.”
She also told the Tyee that recent polling of members, which she called “cultural research,” supported her decision to try to enlist licensed practical nurses from other unions into the BCNU.
“The authors of the petition,” she said, “are playing into some nurses’ fears. Nevertheless, the leadership of this union is totally open to debate. If the petition gets 1,000 signatures, it will trigger a special convention. But we have a regular convention scheduled for March, and I’m not sure we would be able to find a venue and arrange a special convention before then.”
Tom Sandborn welcomes feedback and story tips at tos@infinet.net
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Elaine Robertson
2 years ago
Shame on BCNU
It's time to stand up for health care workers and stand up against raiding!
Let's get back to working collaboratively for health care in B.C.
sunshine coast girl
2 years ago
Way to go nurses!!
Rein in that crazy woman and then kick her out! She's an embarrassment and a shame to the trade union movement....good luck!
bcliberals_suck
2 years ago
Bargaining chips
I think people need to ask - what was it that the BCNU bargained to get their members raises? They will probably be the only public sector union to do so. The others are being slashed. So, BCNU, what was your secret? A little union busting for the man?
The corporations want the unions to die. Breaking them is a key activity. They've made too many gains for working people, both unionized and not, since they drag non-unionized employers into offering better too. Cuts into the profits for the Corporate elites.
bougie
2 years ago
opportunism
The rumor has it that Debra is doing her Executive MBA at the Sauder school of business (UBC) at $55,000 for 1 year, part time that is (Check the BCNU website for details). You need more member dues to pay for that. Unfortunately the number of RN's is decreasing due to the cutbacks so guess you have to be looking for LPN's to keep funding this.
Troy Pratt
2 years ago
BCNU Leadership will fall
It will be a great day for the labour movement when Both Mcpherson and Fayne are turfed from the BCNU. They both are realizing this as their reality more and more with each passing day because their RAID will fail, and when it does the rank in file members will be calling for their heads and rightly so because Mcpherson and Fayne have done irreparable harm to BCNU reputation within the labour movement and foolishly spent MILLIONS of BCNU Members money on this RAID campaign.
sajrpn
2 years ago
Not the first failed BCNU raid
This is the second time BCNU has tried to raid another union and failed. This outfit is completely lacking in union ethics and when the crunch comes (and it will) I'm sure they will be supported in kind by the rest of the labour movement.
They are a rogue union and an embarrassment to all union members. Perhaps they should move over to CLAC where I'm sure they would be welcomed.
I can't understand why the CFNU hasn't jettisoned this bunch because they are being tarred with the same brush.
McPherson and Fayne and their ilk must go. Good on these nurses for having the guts to take them on. It's about time!
Wilfride Laurier
2 years ago
McPherson
This woman is an embarrassment to her membership and has been for years. She has been at the forefront of some really bad decisions, many with racial overtones, such as the campaign to get rid of LPNs in the first place. Really, she is a disgrace and hardly a model for healthy living.