By Isaac Phan Nay | The Tyee
On an overcast Tuesday in late March, the LifeLabs workers picketing outside Vancouver’s Regent Medical Building rouse themselves for a cheer.
“What do we want? Better wages. When do we want it? Now,” they chant, marching back and forth along West Broadway, carrying signs and waving a yellow BC General Employees’ Union flag.
Passersby have opinions on LifeLabs and are not afraid to share them. “I had a horrible experience at LifeLabs,” a woman says. “But they have the right to better wages.”
About 1,200 B.C. LifeLabs employees have been on rotating strikes since Feb. 16. On Monday, four of 10 locations in or near downtown Vancouver were closed.
This has resulted in longer waits for blood tests and other work ordered by doctors.
The union wants Quest Diagnostics, which bought LifeLabs in August, to agree to higher wages and increased staffing in a new collective agreement.
The BC General Employees’ Union, or BCGEU, has been in negotiations on a new contract for LifeLabs employees since March 2024. The previous collective agreement expired at the end of that month.
The Secaucus, New Jersey-based health-care giant Quest Diagnostics bought LifeLabs for $1.35 billion last summer. Quest Diagnostics did not respond to requests for comment and instead forwarded requests to LifeLabs.
A spokesperson for LifeLabs said in a statement signed by the “LifeLabs Media Team” that the company respects the negotiation process and workers’ right to “pursue their interests.”
“We would like to continue to negotiate and work with the union to reach an agreement that is mutually acceptable and reflects the value our employees bring to their roles each day,” the LifeLabs spokesperson said.
“Our highest priority is to ensure continuity of care for the people of British Columbia, who rely on us for their testing needs.”
The union started job action in February after 98 per cent of members voted to strike.
The BC Labour Relations Board has designated LifeLabs an essential service. Instead of a full strike, workers at some LifeLabs locations across B.C. are walking off the job to picket a few days each week.
BCGEU president Paul Finch said negotiations broke down over wages and staffing issues. He added the employer proposed a 20 per cent reduction in sick pay for all workers.
“There’s been no significant progress in any negotiations,” he said. “The employer is so far refusing to come to the table or yield any respect for the needs of patients and the workers who provide these services.”
Finch said LifeLabs’ wages are below the rates paid for similar work in some hospitals. He said the starting hourly wage for lab assistants at LifeLabs is $25.27 while some hospitals offer a wage of $29.27 and a signing bonus. He added that medical lab techs with five years of experience in a hospital make $45.81 per hour, while at LifeLabs they get $40.70.
Finch said the union is pushing for LifeLabs workers to be paid the same rates as hospital employees with the same jobs.
The workers are also calling for provisions to manage their workload, including having more staff scheduled per shift.
“The scheduling is so tight to maximize profit, it creates almost an assembly-line-like condition,” Finch said.
Mandy De Fields has worked at LifeLabs as a medical laboratory technologist for almost 34 years. She said the Cowichan Valley location where she works often gets more patients than the staff can handle.
“We are in a situation where people are literally working themselves to the bone,” De Fields said. “They are sweating through their uniforms by the end of the day, that’s how hard they’re working.”
De Fields said her colleagues often put in overtime to serve patients who walk in needing blood testing and other diagnostics at the end of the day. She said low staffing at LifeLabs across B.C. means longer waits for patients looking for blood work and other services.
“We don’t have enough space in the waiting room, so they’re lined up down hallways or continue to wait outside,” she said. “Sometimes these people are quite ill, which is why they’re getting blood work in the first place.”
She wants the employer to hire more staff and negotiate ways to reduce employees’ workload.
“It’s just not acceptable to us,” De Fields said. “It’s not good patient care, and we can’t carry on this way and this is not sustainable.”
‘Hands Off Our Health Care’
The BCGEU has launched a “Hands Off Our Health Care” campaign calling for the province to fold LifeLabs’ diagnostic and testing services into public health care and commissioned an online study by public opinion pollster Research Co. Of the 801 B.C. adults polled, 74 per cent said they opposed for-profit U.S. companies owning and controlling health-care services in B.C. The survey found 77 per cent of people support the B.C. government intervening.
“We don’t believe an American for-profit company bringing an American style of health care to British Columbia should be allowed to operate like this,” Finch said. “Diagnostics and testing are a critical component of the B.C. health-care system and should be publicly administered.”
A spokesperson for the B.C. Ministry of Health said in an email that while LifeLabs is owned by Quest Diagnostics, it remains a Canadian incorporated entity.
It added the ministry is committed to ensuring Quest Diagnostics’ acquisition of LifeLabs does not hurt the service’s quality, affordability or accessibility.
