Tranquility Lost: The Occupation of Tranquille and Battle for Community Care in BC

by Gary Steeves

Overview

In 1983, the BC provincial government announced plans to close Tranquille, a large residential institution for persons with intellectual disabilities located outside Kamloops. The announcement was made with no community placement plans for residents. The nearly six hundred employees of Tranquille, members of the BC Government Employees Union and the Union of Psychiatric Nurses, were alarmed by the lack of any Ministry of Human Resources planning for the future of the residents and the ministry’s stated intention to use newly tabled legislation to terminate Tranquille employees without cause and avoid any other collective agreement obligations to employees. Consequently, BCGEU members decided to sit-in and occupy the institution by expelling management, running the institution themselves and publicly advocating for quality community care for people with intellectual disabilities. They did so for nearly a month.

Tranquility Lost chronicles the political and public policy conditions leading up to the occupation, the day-to-day activities of the occupation itself, the challenges faced by the workers and negotiations leading to an agreement. Steeves’s account profiles the courage of Tranquille employees and their unprecedented use of collective bargaining as a tool to address conditions faced by government clients as well as government employees themselves.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780889713864
Publisher:	Nightwood Editions
Publication date:	03/30/2021
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Gary Steeves has worked for social and environmental justice all his adult life. A staff representative with the BCGEU from 1979 to 2004, he served as director of the union from 1993 to 2004. He also served on numerous government boards and agencies, including the BC Labour Force Development Board and the Industry Training and Apprenticeship Commission, and held various positions in the union movement, including executive council member of the BC Federation of Labour. From 2004 to 2014, he served on the Islands Trust Council, including six years on its executive committee as vice chair of the council.

Table of Contents

Foreword Stephanie Smith ix

Foreword Cliff Andstein xi

Chapter 1 Back in Business 1

Chapter 2 The Legislative Assault 22

Chapter 3 A Union Response 41

Chapter 4 From Dominance to Demise 57

Chapter 5 Running the Institution 75

Chapter 6 Legal Threats 89

Chapter 7 The Fear of Failure 104

Chapter 8 New Management Operations 120

Chapter 9 Songs, Poetry and Protest 137

Chapter 10 Negotiations and De-occupation 154

Chapter 11 It's About the Residents 173

Epilogue 189

Acknowledgements 203

Index 205

About the Author 211