Nurses’ Job action hits North hard

The union, which represents about 60,000 nurses in British Columbia, says formal negotiations with the Health Employers Association of B.C. had not taken place since May before the latest escalation. The employer has now agreed to resume negotiations.

For northern B.C., the dispute is not only about bargaining. It is also about the fragility of health services in rural and remote communities, where one sick call or one vacant position can have consequences for an entire hospital.

Adriane Gear, president of the B.C. Nurses’ Union, said the staffing crisis affects nurses across the province, but the impact can be more severe in smaller communities.

“When you think about some of the small sites where an emergency room will close because one nurse is sick,” Gear said. “Whereas in a larger centre, there’s just a little bit more resilience.”

Gear said nurses in northern B.C. are often expected to work with fewer supports than those in larger urban hospitals. In larger centres, there may be respiratory therapists, security staff and other specialized teams available. In smaller northern facilities, nurses may be required to take on broader responsibilities because there are fewer people on site.

“What I would say in northern B.C. — and I have made an effort to really get out to the North and visit some of these small sites and talk to nurses — is that they’re really on their own,” Gear said. “Nurses are really expected to be kind of a jack of all trades.”

Those conditions are also raising concerns about violence in the workplace. Gear said violence has become a serious issue for health-care workers across the province, but the response options can be more limited in remote areas.

“One nurse goes off every 16 hours on an injury, time loss claim, WorkSafe time loss claim every 16 hours,” Gear said.

Workplace violence statistics show the issue has been growing. WorkSafeBC figures show there were 1,102 allowed claims in 2024 involving nurses, nurse aides, orderlies and patient service associates where the accident type was an act of violence or force. That was up from 988 in 2020. The B.C. Nurses’ Union has also said time-loss claims related to workplace violence among nurses rose from an average of 25 per month in 2014 to 46 per month in 2023.

The union says violence is now one of the issues making it harder to retain nurses. Gear said nurses are dealing with short staffing, high workloads, unsafe conditions and the expectation that they will continue holding the system together without enough tangible support.

She said that frustration is especially visible in northern B.C., where the Northern Health Authority has not moved far enough on implementing minimum nurse-to-patient ratios.

“The reality is the North has done very little on that file,” Gear said. “They have not implemented in the areas that they were supposed to.”

Gear said province-wide nursing vacancies are also putting pressure on the system.

“I can tell you that province wide, we have 4500 permanent vacancies,” she said. “So that doesn’t include nurses on long term disability or short term disability, maternity leave.”

She said those vacancies can affect hospitals differently depending on size. A large hospital may be able to absorb several sick calls, but a smaller northern site may not.

“Vancouver General can absorb having ten nurses call in sick that day,” Gear said. “One nurse in one facility in the north could close it down.”

Prince George-Mackenzie MLA Kiel Giddens said the job action is not surprising, given what he has heard from nurses about staffing and workplace safety.

“Nurses are fed up with, obviously, their conditions in the workplace with unsafe staffing ratios and unsafe working conditions with violence in the workplace,” Giddens said.

He said nurses are also concerned about the impact those conditions have on patients.

“Patients are also suffering under this government’s health care plans,” Giddens said. “I hear from nurses about violence in the workplace and how frustrating and scary that is.”

Giddens said every worker should be able to go to work knowing they will return home safely at the end of the day. He said that standard should apply to nurses in hospitals, clinics and community settings across northern B.C.

He also pointed to rural emergency room closures, including in communities such as Mackenzie, as evidence of a health-care system under pressure.

“Certainly in rural hospitals across the north, we already have seen closures of ERs,” Giddens said. “I really hope that this doesn’t lead to more of that.”

Emergency room interruptions have become a recurring issue in parts of northern B.C., where patients may be forced to travel long distances for care. Gear said that can create inequity for patients, especially during winter weather or when the next available emergency department is far away.

She said nurses working in community settings also face unique challenges, including large geographic areas, long drives and difficult road conditions.

“In the north, the road conditions and the length that nurses have to go to provide care — that really stood out for me for community nurses,” Gear said.

The Ministry of Health has said residents should continue to visit emergency departments, local health clinics, urgent and primary care centres and primary care providers as needed.

The B.C. Nurses’ Union says the current job action is the first phase of a broader escalation plan. The union says additional measures could be taken if the provincial government does not return to the bargaining table with an offer nurses can accept.

The Nurses’ Bargaining Association says it remains committed to reaching a fair agreement and that further escalation can still be avoided.

Gear said the issues on the table go beyond wages. She said nurses are looking for recognition of what they have been carrying through years of shortages, including after the pandemic intensified workforce pressures.

“What nurses were looking for was some kind of acknowledgment that we’ve been holding up the system,” Gear said.

Giddens said the province needs to listen to frontline workers because they understand what is happening inside the health-care system.

“The provincial government really needs to listen to frontline workers,” Giddens said. “They know what’s going on in the system. They know what patient care looks like.”

Negotiations are expected to resume Monday. Both Gear and Giddens said the best resolution would come through bargaining, but they also said the province needs to bring an offer that addresses the realities nurses are describing — especially in the north.

“Ultimately the best deal is always going to be at the bargaining table,” Giddens said. “But at the end of the day, nurses have to be respected.”

by Nick Dube

Nurses’ Job action hits North hard

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