Fraser Valley ambulance service faces staffing crunch in strike

The union for B.C. paramedics admits essential-service levels were not met Monday night in the Fraser Valley, where only two of 16 ambulances were staffed.

The 3,500 CUPE Local 873 members have been on strike since April 1 in a dispute over wages, butprovincial essential-service legislation stipulates ambulances must be sufficiently staffed.

B.J. Chute, a spokesman for the Ambulance Paramedics of B.C., said he couldn't explain why so many paramedics were unable to work Monday night.

"I can't speculate as to why individual members did book off, if they were sick or what the reason was," he said.

"Certainly we have an expectation that the members live up to the essential-service order and staff the ambulances as they normally would."

Additional ambulances were brought in from Vancouver and the B.C. Interior to address the need in the area, the union said.

The B.C. Ambulance Service said it has received noreports that patient care in the Fraser Valley was compromised as a result of the Monday-night staff shortage, but said the staffingshortfall is expected to continue Tuesday.

Chute said the employer knew about the staffing crunch in advance, but he acknowledged such a drastic shortage of paramedicsshouldn't have happened.

"Ambulances being shut down are not condoned by the union, and it is certainly nothing that we would ever advocate," Chute said.

"In fact we have been fighting for more ambulances, particularly in the Fraser Valley, for as long as I've been an officer of this union and certainly much longer than that."

Escalating job action

The paramedics unionescalated its job action Monday by setting up emergency picket lines across the provincein reaction to disciplinary measures against two of its members.

The two paramedics were doing a routine brake check of their ambulance and were unable to respond to a 911 call, Chute said. The pair were then disciplined by the employer, he said.

"This is an overreaction by the employer and it's something that they really need to reconsider, and I think they will reconsider, given the response from paramedics," Chute said.

"This [brake check] is something that happens hundreds of times a day throughout the province, and I'm not sure why they chose to come down with such a heavy hand on these two paramedics, but it's completely irresponsible to do so."