Paramedics: an essential service, or just healthcare workers?
By Sara Golling
There you are, flat on the floor with crushing chest pain. "Heart attack!" you think, while the world goes a bit grey and fuzzy. But you're able to reach your phone and dial 911. Is this an emergency? Are the paramedics who come to tend you essential, or just nice to have, like a clean floor to lie on while you wait for help to arrive?
Or: you've just been in a car crash caused by some idiot looking at his phone instead of paying attention to the road, and you know your spouse has been badly injured beside you. There's a frightening amount of blood, and parts of the vehicle are pinning you so that you can hardly reach your phone, but you manage to get it and dial 911. Again, is this an emergency? Is a paramedic essential?
In both scenarios above, paramedics are the ones who will arrive with an ambulance and provide care that will give the best chance of survival for that person with the heart attack, and anyone injured in that car crash. Other competent "first responders" such as Search and Rescue or Fire Services may be first on the scene, but the ambulance will arrive with paramedics to provide care en route to the hospital. Should BC's paramedics be designated as "essential services" instead of being lumped in with "healthcare workers" such as hospital cleaning staff, as they are now? To anyone like the person lying on the floor dealing with a heart attack, the answer may seem obvious. But there is not universal agreement about it, as evidenced by the fact that paramedics are not classed as an essential service.
A local nurse expressed surprise when informed that paramedics are not already classed as an essential service.
As described last fall in this article, BC's paramedics have begun a process called an Initiative Petition, seeking to be classified as an essential service. Their application was granted on January 9, 2017, and they have 90 days after that to collect the required number of signatures on their petition. How many signatures? -- they need at least 10% of the registered voters in each of BC's electoral districts to support their initiative with a signature. Kootenay West electoral district has 30,649 registered voters, so the petitioners must collect signatures from at least 3,065 voters in this district.
If the Initiative Petition is successful, paramedics will lose the right to strike, and gain the right to binding arbitration. That, says one paramedic in the Lower Mainland, would be a good thing. "No one wants to strike," he explained. "The optics are terrible, it makes us look like fools, people get alienated. But without being officially recognized as an emergency service, we have few options." The employer would also lose the right to lock out paramedics in a labour dispute.
Voters who agree that paramedics should be classified as an essential service can help make that happen by signing the petition. Those who don't agree, of course, can refrain from signing it.
In the Lower Columbia area, there is one ambulance based in Rossland, one in Fruitvale, and two in Trail. At any given time, there are two paramedics on duty for each ambulance. No local paramedics could be reached to respond to questions on the Initiative Petition.
For more detailed information on the petition, here's a link:
http://www.elections.bc.ca/index.php/initiative-petition-to-amend-the-fire-and-police-services-collective-bargaining-act/
To learn what the BC Labour Code says about essential services, here's another link:
http://www.bclaws.ca/civix/document/id/complete/statreg/96244_01#section72
This story is from the Rossland Telegraph.