More than 50,000 nurses in BC are being asked to ratify a new employment contract that will award indigenous nurses five paid days a year to attend religious events such as Pow-wows or Sundance, and transgender-identified persons eight weeks of paid “gender-affirming medical leave,” in addition to their regular sick leave. Furthermore, it will force employers to implement self-ID policies in female bathrooms and change rooms.
Employers will also be encouraged to hire indigenous applicants who are underqualified for a position, even when competing against a highly qualified but non-indigenous applicant.
The special benefits the new contract awards to indigenous and transgender-identified persons are not offered to any other minority group. And the self-ID policies forced on employers will allow males who have not undergone any medical transition or legal name change to enter female spaces, should that align with their “lived gender.”
It reads: “An employee/worker may use the bathroom/changeroom of their lived gender regardless of whether or not they have sought or completed surgeries or completed a legal name change or gender change.” It goes on to specify that employers must “[p]ost signage in all bathroom/changeroom facilities about diverse genders being welcome in these spaces.”
The proposed contract is riddled with discriminatory racial and gender policy mandates that are antithetical to the purpose of a union. How, for instance, would the BC Nurses’ Union (BCNU) protect an employee that should have been hired into a job but was not, as a direct outcome of the contract the BCNU negotiated?
The tentative contract reads: “Employers may select an Indigenous candidate, even where they are not the most senior qualified candidate… where the employer has identified it is desirable to hire Indigenous peoples into leadership or mentorship roles.”
Affirmative action—which is what this contract proposes—is hotly debated internationally, and, in some areas, falling out of favour. I am skeptical that any consideration to the history of affirmative action was given while this nursing contract was drafted.
One of the most egregious proposals in this contract is the eight-week bonus of paid medical leave for transgender-identified persons. It is grossly unfair to give a single minority group an enormous benefit such as this. What about nurses who develop cancer? We know, from the Nurses’ Health Study, that female nurses who did shift-work for decades are more likely to develop breast cancer.
Why can’t these women—who developed a devasting illness as a direct result of being a nurse—get an additional eight weeks of paid leave for their cancer treatment? Why must we give transgender-identified persons such an enormous and unfair benefit? Who decided that this group is worthy of an extra entitlement? This is discriminatory pandering written into an employment contract, full stop.
The Health Employers Association of BC (HEABC) announced their tentative agreement on March 31. The BCNU—the largest nursing union in the province—has since been encouraging members to ratify the contract by heavily focusing on the “record-setting compensation” nurses will receive.
I have yet to see any official communications from the BCNU or HEABC that openly advertises the numerous special benefits awarded only to indigenous or transgender-identified persons. It’s almost as though the unions and government are attempting to sneak their racial and gender politics into the contract through the back door.
This is not the first time the BCNU has abdicated its role as a union and instead served as an activist organization. Last year, I called them out for asking the Trudeau government to pass Canada’s “conversion therapy” bill that makes it illegal for healthcare providers to not immediately affirm any patient’s chosen gender, no matter how young they are.
Healthcare providers, including nurses, can now face prison time in Canada if they do not play along with the stated gender of a toddler. The BCNU wanted this. The sole function of a union is to represent its members. The BCNU no longer serves this purpose: they now shill for extremists pushing critical race theory and gender ideology.
Ratifying this contract would be a mistake, and I encourage BC nurses to vote against it. Yes, the compensation is good. I am a registered nurse in the province and personally stand to receive a 14-percent wage increase.
However, I do not want indigenous colleagues to worry that they will be perceived as incompetent because of hiring policies that infantilize and demean them. Nor am I willing to give up an ounce of women’s rights to see my paycheque increase. No amount of money could make me concede that male colleagues belong in the bathrooms and changerooms of the hospital I work in.
Women’s rights are not for sale. Shame on my union, and shame on the BC government. Your new contract is racist and sexist. If it gets ratified, prepare for discrimination lawsuits—every sane person can see them coming.
Representatives from the BCNU or HEABC have not responded to requests for comment at the time of publication.
