British Columbia Federation of Labour

British Columbia labour leaders unanimously condemned the Liberal government’s back to work legislation in the Paramedics dispute at an emergency meeting of the B.C. Federation of Labour this evening.

“This legislation is completely unnecessary,” says Federation President Jim Sinclair. “Paramedics were on the job. They were looking after people. Worse still, the Paramedics were in the process of voting on the government’s last offer.”

“This legislation isn’t about taking care of British Columbians, it’s about Gordon Campbell going back to his old ways of ripping up worker’s rights and legislating collective agreements. The labour movement will not stand for it,” Sinclair added.

“You can’t bully workers into accepting collective agreements. This isn’t going to create labour peace. This is going to create confrontation,” says Sinclair.

“Increasing confrontation turns up the heat on labour relations as 200,000 public sector workers prepare for bargaining and the province and the country gets ready to greet visitors from around the world for the Winter Olympics,” Sinclair added.

For more information: Evan Stewart, Director of Communications (604) 220-3095.