Opposition questions what happened to promised contingency plans
An ambulance from the Burin Peninsula is pictured in St. John's recently. Emergency medical responders and dispatchers at seven privately run rural ambulance services went on strike at noon on Friday, Jan. 20. Joe Gibbons/The TelegramParamedics at Fewer’s Ambulance Services in Newfoundland and Labrador marked their third day on strike Monday, Jan. 23 as politicians headed into emergency debate on legislation that would force them back to work.
Debate is set to begin around 3:30 p.m. on Monday, Jan. 23. Government is confident the legislation will pass on Monday, but that depends on how the debate develops — it could potentially continue on Tuesday.Monday morning, Premier Andrew Furey told reporters at Confederation Building this is not traditional back to work action.
However, the legislation would take away the paramedics’ key pressure tool of withdrawing services to put pressure on the employer, something Furey said is always a source of debate with essential services.“The system needs to continue to provide essential services. So, the RNU , for example, has an essential workers agreement, or one that is being discussed and always modified, to allow them to strike while not disrupting emergency services.
“That has to be the priority right now in finding a way to get those services up and running, doing that by protecting the paramedics that are engaged here, and ensuring that the collective agreement process is still in play.”NDP interim leader Jim Dinn criticized the Liberal government’s rush to pass the legislation and delayed the process by several hours on Monday by not immediately giving leave to debate.
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