Member Update – Public Relations Campaign

Dear Members,

Last week we launched our newest public relations campaign, ‘Imagine a World with More Paramedics’. In the eight days since the launch, our messages have been airing on television, billboards, newspapers and online. Thus far, the online results are as follows:

• Website visits & impressions: 125,000
• Social Media views & interactions: 394,000
• Video views: 75,000

Momentum on the campaign continues to build, and our message is reaching the public. Please be sure to share the various links and posts on your own social media platforms to help spread the word.

We have also been engaged in a back and forth conversation with the Employer over their assertion that one of our campaign websites (paramedicsin859.com), where a person can report the length of a ambulance response time, represents a breach of patient’s personal information. The Employer also asserts that employees submitting response time reports would be a violation of their policy.

With the greatest of respect to the Employer, we disagree. On two separate occasions with have asked the Employer to disclose the specifics and particulars of the alleged breaches and to this date, the Employer has not disclosed any specifics and particulars of alleged and or potential breaches. It is our considered opinion personal information must be about an identifiable individual and we don’t believe an individual can be identified through the information on our website.

Despite the foregoing, we are concerned the Employer may target individual members if they have reason to believe an employee posted response times information on our website. It is not our intention to put members in the middle of a dispute with the Employer, therefore out of an abundance of caution we are asking members not to post information on the response time web site.  We will continue to promote the paramedicsin859 website, including encouraging the public to post response time information on our web page. 

Should you have any questions about this, please contact your regional vice-presidents. Please stay tuned for further updates on the campaign as it proceeds.

Sincerely, 

Bronwyn Barter
Provincial President
Ambulance Paramedics and Emergency Dispatchers of BC
CUPE Local 873

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