Monday, July 16, 2007

** Calgary EMS medics to vote on strike

** BC medics’ union appalled at delay in hazard recognition training

CANADA NEWS

** Four hundred Calgary EMS medics will decide today whether or not to strike. The Calgary Sun (Katie Schneider/July 16) said the main issue in the dispute is wages. Practitioners are seeking a 30 per cent salary hike over three years, along with base pay market adjustments;the city has offered 12 per cent, shift differentials, and a supplemental pension plan. City spokesman Vickie Megrath said strike action would not overly impact EMS functioning. Megrath said in the event managers would be placed on rigs to respond to calls.

** Budgetary constraints could prevent BC Ambulance from instituting hazard-recognition training for nearly two years. That is the word from the Globe and Mail (Armin Ligaya/July 13) which quoted from information released during the conclusion of a coroner’s inquest. The inquest examined the circumstances surrounding the deaths of Kimberley paramedics Shawn Currier and Kim Weitzel. Both died May 17, 2006 in an enclosed, oxygen deprived shack at the Sullivan mine. Union spokesman Bronwyn Barter said she was appalled money was dictating safety. Service spokesman Bob Gallaher said because 2008’s budget had been set, money for the instruction would not be available until 2009. He added, however, some of this year’s allocation would go towards developing the training.