The Ambulance Paramedics of BC are calling on the provincial government to make paramedics an essential service, and amend their bargaining rights to that of police and firefighters.
Smithers Paramedic Michael Larsen has been collecting signatures for a petition at the Smithers Safeway today, and is looking for over 1,300 signatures from voters in Stikine. Paramedics of BC need 10 per cent of the registered voters in BC to sign the petition form to be effective.
Larsen says with an essential service status it will take away their right to strike.
“Currently, if the janitors and cleaning staff (at the hospital) go on strike, it potentiality puts us in a strike position. And this (status)prevents that,” says Larsen.
He says if they went on strike it would hurt the community because “there wouldn’t be an ambulance service to respond.”
“We don’t have a lot of seats at the current bargaining table that we go to bargain at – which hurts us a lot. We get voted down a lot.”
Larsen says benefits around things like wages and pager pay could be looked at down the road with increased bargaining rights.
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