Essential Services Legislation: YOU’RE NEXT.

The Nova Scotia legislature has been recalled for this Friday, as the Liberal government is planning to pass essential services legislation.

Essential services legislation significantly reduces the union’s ability to bargain with any employer. It absolutely diminishes your bargaining power.

Make no mistake. It will shift the balance of power in negotiations strongly in favour of the government. It will badly weaken the bargaining strength of every worker in the province by requiring that a significant portion of workers must stay at work in the event of a strike.

We can say goodbye to our hard-bargained claim to fair wages comparable to similar sized provinces. We can say goodbye to any chance we have of fighting for improved job security, better pensions, better vacation, all battles where we’ve had success over the last few years because we have the right to a fair strike.

So many people will be required at work during a strike that any employer will be well-positioned to gain significant claw-backs at the bargaining table.

This legislation isn’t really about public safety. It’s about control.

Allowing only a small percentage of workers in a bargaining unit to go on strike means there is little incentive to reach a deal. There will be more strikes and every strike will be long and drawn-out.

This legislation will silence our voice and reduces our ability to fight back against a government that is compromising patient care and public services in order to cut costs.

This will drive health care and public sector workers out of Nova Scotia at a time when we’re facing shortages in many areas.

WHAT YOU CAN DO!

Sign up to speak at Law Amendments Committee. The government has an obligation to hear from constituents on this issue. We need you to speak up and explain why this legislation is bad for workers, and Nova Scotia.

Please scroll down for information about Law Amendments.

It’s easy: sign up by calling 424-8941. Ask to be put on the list of presenters for the bill to Ensure the Provision of Essential Home Support Services. You can do this even if there is a chance you might later change your mind about going before the Committee. Someone with the Legislative Counsel Office will call you back with possible dates and times for your presentation.When you will go to meet with the Committee, you will likely be one of 3 or 4 presenters for that hour. Each presenter is supposed to have 5-10 minutes. While you are free to speak to the Committee without any written notes, it is usually easier and more effective if you write down or type your key points on 1-2 pages, if you have time to do this.

Also, please send a message to your MLA, Minister of Health and Premier!

Thank you for your time and support on this very important issue!

___________________________________________________________

Some Key Points to Raise with the Law Amendments Committee On The Essential Home support Services (2014) Act

I am a _______________ who has worked for ______ years. I work with ______________.

• I do not support this Bill or any other form of essential services legislation for Nova Scotia.
• This Bill isn’t really about patient safety. It’s clearly about control and saving money.
• Just like the Harper government, this legislation is being introduced with no public discussion
• Home support workers deserve our thanks for the work they do, but they also deserve a fair wage. They are only asking for what people doing the same jobs in hospitals already have.
• I can assure you that healthcare workers care about their patients. In the acute care sector, that’s why we have always worked with the employer to put in place an emergency services plan. We know their clients’ and patients’ needs better than any third-party adjudicator.
• Even the government acknowledges that 97% of cases are resolved without a strike.  So why are they doing this?
• Allowing only a small percentage of workers in a bargaining unit to go on strike means there’s little incentive to reach a deal.  Long, drawn-out strikes aren’t good for healthcare workers or patients.
• Longer strikes mean longer surgery delays and appointments that can’t be rescheduled for months.
• Healthcare workers fight for their patients and for safe health care.  This silences our voice and reduces our power to fight back against a government that is compromising patient care to cut costs.
•  This creates a poisoned environment for health care workers.
•  This will drive health care workers out of Nova Scotia at a time when we’re facing “alarming” shortages.
• Other provinces have tried versions of this kind of law, and it’s led to worsening labour relations.
• In 2010 while in opposition, Stephen McNeil said emergency service plans should be hammered out in times of labour peace, not days before a possible strike, and essential services legislation in other provinces hasn’t stopped labour unrest and strikes.
• This proposed legislation is unworkable considering the very broad definition of “essential home support service” and the complicated process to be followed to reach an essential services agreement.
• It would be much more cost-effective to have the parties negotiating to reach a fair and reasonable collective agreement.
• The Bill could be a template for taking away the right to strike for any group of workers deemed to be essential to the government of the day.
• For all these reasons, I strongly urge the McNeil government to withdraw this Bill, and instead, put pressure on our employers to return to the bargaining table to reach an agreement.
• I appreciate this opportunity to speak to the Law Amendments Committee at this time.

__________________________________________________

Information about Going To Speak Before The Law Amendments Committee – Call 424-8941

9.         When you will go to meet with the Committee, you will likely be one of 3 or 4 presenters for that hour.   Each presenter is supposed to have 5-10 minutes. 

10.       While you are free to speak to the Committee without any written notes, it is usually easier and more effective if you write down or type your key points on 1-2 pages, if you have time to do this. 

11.       When it is your turn to speak before the Committee, the Chairperson will ask you to come forward and sit at a table in front of the Committee.  You are usually asked to make a few opening comments or read your presentation.  To help you feel more relaxed, it might be good to have another person to sit with you.

12.       After you make your comments or read your presentation, the Chairperson will ask if any Committee member will ask has any questions or comments for you.  Generally speaking, only the NDP or PC members will ask 1 or 2 questions, usually to help support your concerns or suggestions. 

13.       If someone should ask you a question you are not sure how to answer, just indicate the main reason why you wanted to come and briefly repeat your main points.

14.       If you feel that you don’t have much to say to the Committee, just remember you probably know far more than anyone on the Committee about what it is like to work in healthcare. As far as they are concerned, you are the expert.  The main thing is that you are speaking as a NSGEU member who works in healthcare.  You want a fair contract with the same pay for people doing the same job in hospitals, and you don’t want to see the right to strike taken away for any group of healthcare workers.

15.       It is probably easiest if you start your presentation to the Committee by telling them who you are (such as I have been working for …years as a………) and why you are coming before the Committee (such as I am here in support of a fair contract and to oppose any move to take away our right to strike).

1. If you can’t attend, please send by fax a letter or written comments to the Legislative Counsel Office at (902) 424-0547 (fax) or legc.office@gov.ns.ca (email).

For more information, please contact Dave Lawrence at 456-8765 (cell) or Ian Johnson at 476-4355 (cell).  Please let us know if you have been called to speak before the Committee and for what time.