Good Morning Members,

On Friday, April 17^th B.C.’s Health Officer, Dr. Bonnie Henry, and Minister of Health, Mr. Adrian Dix, presented the modelling that has been developed for our province as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.   Dr. Henry also provided another update yesterday, April 18^th, and she confirmed that the cases they are seeing are due to close contacts, and that coming together in gatherings is still not recommended.  At about the 30-minute mark of the conference Dr. Henry does speak to the expectations for the Education system. There was a lot of good questions during this press conference with some very clarifying answers that some may find of interest.

There have not been many public announcements coming from the Ministry of Education but this most recent interview with Minister Fleming touches on some of the expectations regarding educations for BC students for the remainder of this school year.  Keep Learning BC is a resource for parents, and the Ministry website also has information for families and students to “…keep kids learning during in-class school suspension”.

Here are a few other links to resources that may be of interest to our members:

• CUPE National
• CUPE B.C.
• CUPE K-12
• Family Services and Employee Assistance Program
• Canadian Emergency Response Benefit
• BC Center for Disease Control

Members that have any questions or concerns with regards to what is happening within our District in so far as it relates to their jobs are asked to connect with their Shop Stewards or email unionoffice@cupe411.ca so that we can promptly address an issues that you may be experiencing amidst this health care crisis.

On a positive note we have had some feedback from members working at the GWG site supporting the children of our Tier 1 Healthcare providers and it sounds like things are going extremely well.  The Team from Learning Services that has overseen the creation of this unique learning environment and has done an excellent job in ensuring appropriate safety measures are in place for everyone on site, and the delivery of instruction has been creative with a number of fun activities for the students.  A HUGE “Thank you” to everyone involved as the Union could not be more proud to support our front-line workers!

We hope that you were able to safely enjoy the beautiful weather yesterday, and please remember, we are all in this together……just a little further apart.

In Solidarity,

CUPE 411 Executive