EDITORIAL: Saving lives or saving money?
BC Ambulance paramedics are looking for a wage increase from the province.
Email
Print
Letter to Editor
Share
Updated: July 16, 2009 11:59 AM
Paramedics have been on strike for the past three months, as the big stickers pasted on the side of ambulances indicate, although they’re still working. Their duties, you see, fall under provincial essential services legislation, which means they are limited in what job action they can take.
But the Emergency and Health Services Commission, which operates the B.C. Ambulance Service — the bargaining unit for the province — won’t compare the pay of other essential services, or emergency services to that of paramedics. Then paramedics would look underpaid.
They have asked for a 16% increase spread equally over four years after their previous contract, which included a three-year wage freeze followed by a 2% increase. That was when the economy wasn’t suffering. Now they’re being told it’s a bad time to ask for more money.
Meanwhile, politicians accepted a 29% raise two years ago. What is saving lives worth?
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
Should B.C.’s paramedics be paid on par with police officers and firefighters? Go to our Question of the Week online poll and weigh in with your vote.
v2
