Social Media Posts

September 21, 2018
Provincial News

Dear Members; 

Re: Social Media Posts

As we begin the municipal election cycle, I want to briefly remind you of how you can serve an important role in your community.

Each of you are a voter in your own municipal riding and I encourage you to be active in your specific election. You should learn where each of the candidates sits on the important issues that matter to you, including any paramedic and dispatcher related issues. Go to your local all-candidate meetings and ask questions to help you and other citizens be informed on these important issues.

Some key and current issues for municipalities to consider:

  • What is your candidate’s view of the current paramedic resourcing levels in your community?
  • What is your candidate’s stance on the recent implementation of the Clinical Response Model (CRM) by BCEHS and the move to an evidence-based approach to medical call response?
  • What is your candidate’s stance on the municipality taking on a greater role in medical first response (i.e. training fire fighters to EMR level)?
  • For rural and remote areas:
    • What is your candidate’s stance on the on-call staffing model for paramedics and the problem with recruitment and retention it leads to?
    • What is your candidate’s stance on further development of Community Paramedicine positions in their community?
    • For urban and metropolitan areas:
      • What is your candidate’s stance on paramedic high workloads, as wells as, high rates of mental and physical injuries?
      • What is your candidate’s stance on further development of Community Paramedicine positions in their community?
      • Do they support advocating action from the provincial government on all of these issues?

I also want to remind you about some important things to consider when making comments on social media. We expect to have several posts related to municipal elections from our public APBC Facebook and Twitter accounts, and we expect there to be many others from CUPE, various fire and police union locals and other organizations.

Please remember- You can be held accountable for comments you make on social media. Labour law has been very clear- your actions and statements extend beyond your actual workplace. We have all seen individuals on social media face severe employment consequences for comments they made, whether they were related to their occupation, or not. You do NOT speak with immunity. You should NEVER represent yourself as speaking on behalf of your Employer or Union, unless you are expressly authorized to do so. You can read the Employers social media policy here: https://goo.gl/rQRtsb 

Social media or otherwise public comments should remain professional and factual. It is never ok to insult or attack another person who you have a differing opinion with. Engaging in a continued back-n-forth with someone to belabour your point is not professional, nor is it productive. My personal policy is: “one and done”. That is, one response to articulate my counter-view, then leave it alone. Please remember this when commenting on our social media posts, as it may attract strong opinions from members of the public or other emergency services. Being polite, professional and factual is always the best course of action. Think twice, post once… or better yet, sleep on it.

For example: In our recent response to the Mayor of Delta’s article re CRM deployment. We issued a strong rebuttal, citing facts from our perspective. If you live or work in Delta, your role in this situation can be to share your own opinion, given your experience as a paramedic or dispatcher. You can speak to real-life experience about how changes like CRM improve patient care. The public responds to this type of polite and professional statement, which elevates our standing with the general public. There is no need to personally insult either the Mayor, or the fire fighters. The public does not tolerate these kinds of comments and therefore dismisses any validity to your perspective. This also devalues our profession and standing with the general public 

With all of the above in mind, I encourage you to share and comment on our social media posts, or any other posts related to paramedic and dispatch services. Your voice matters, so use it wisely.

Sincerely,

Cameron Eby

Provincial President

Ambulance Paramedics of BC

CUPE Local 873

Please click HERE to view PDF version of this message.

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