HEU Being Sued

The Hospital Employees Union is being sued for its strike action last April.

The Canadian Taxpayers Federation is spearheading the legal action in the form of a class action suit.

“During last year’s bitter labour dispute, the HEU defied a back to work order, stayed on the picket lines and shut down the province’s hospitals. During those four days, our back-logged health care system was forced to cancel 6,000 surgeries and 19,000 diagnostic procedures," says Sara MacIntyre, BC director for the CTF. "Patients were denied treatment because of the HEU’s illegal actions but had no avenue to have their voices heard and to hold the HEU accountable for their heavy-handed and callous tactics.”

The CTF says a Writ of Summons was served on the HEU Monday to launch the class action suit for emotional, physical and economic damages caused by the delay in their treatment.

On April 25, 2004, the HEU went on strike, a few days later the government passed back to work legislation and the Labour Relations Board ordered the union back to work on April 30. The union’s executive ordered its members to remain on the picket lines until May 3, 2004.

The CTF says "the illegal strike cost taxpayers over $6.4 million dollars in cancelled surgeries and procedures and caused incalculable damage to those impacted patients."

“Following the strike, the CTF worked with patients and legal counsel to initiate the first step to a class action suit, a declaration by the Labour Relations Board (LRB) that the HEU’s strike was indeed illegal. It took the LRB almost a full year to make that declaration because the HEU used every avenue available to them, including requiring the victims to disclose all the particulars of their injuries,” says MacIntyre.

The CTF calling on British Columbians who suffered from a cancelled procedure or surgery during the time of the HEU’s illegal strike (April 30-May 3 2004) to come forward and apply to join this class action.

“This case presents a real opportunity for the public, patients and taxpayers, to hold the HEU responsible for their actions. It should send a clear message to all public sector unions: taxpayers are no longer pawns to be used to settle contract disputes. It’s time public sector unions learn they work for taxpayers,” says MacIntyre.