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BC Nurses Union insurgents don antique capes to protest raid on HEU

Members of the BC Nurses' Union (BCNU) who oppose their union’s current attempts to raid the Hospital Employees Union (HEU) brought their opposition to the front doors of New Westminister’s Royal Columbian Hospital on November 8. Wearing antique style nurse’s capes they made themselves, the small group of rank and file union members distributed a pamphlet denouncing their own union’s efforts to win over Licensed Practical Nurses (LPN) from their current union, the HEU.

“We will be dressed in old-fashioned nursing hats and capes as a visual reminder of the BCNU’s antiquated practice of union raiding,” the insurgents said in a press release.

The raid, their leaflet argues, is divisive, undemocratic and costly.

“The raid is coming at the worst possible time,” the rank and file group, which describes itself as made up of both BCNU and HEU members, argues. “Public sector unions are heading into 2012 bargaining facing a Liberal government determined to impose austerity contracts and to continue their march toward private health care. First the government lied in order to impose the HST on us. Now it will use the post-HST deficit as a bludgeon to impose cuts, freezes, and 'net-zero' contracts. At exactly the time we most need unity among public sector unions, the LPN raid threatens to make that impossible. “

Speaking to The Tyee for an earlier story on the cascade of trouble the raid attempt has brought down on her union’s head, BCNU president Deb McPherson recently insisted that the raid on the HEU had the support of most of her membership.

However, she declined to make the polling results available to The Tyee, saying ““Our scientifically done polls are not for the media.”

The BCNU members who staged the leafleting action at Royal Columbian disagree with McPherson’s claim to enjoy member support, and argue the raids have never been put to a vote of the entire membership .

“The raid has badly damaged BCNU, whose once-proud reputation lies in tatters. It has isolated BCNU within the labour movement and the community. As a direct result of the raid, BCNU has been obliged to leave the Canadian Federation of Nurses’ Unions (CFNU), and is in the process of leaving the B.C. Federation of Labour,” Sharon Sharp, one of the organizers of the rebel leafleting, told The Tyee.

Tom Sandborn covers labour and health policy beats for The Tyee. He welcomes your feedback and story tips at [email protected].

Related stories: Hospital Employees Union survey is 'push polling': BCNU President Labour Pains at the Nurses Union

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