Provincewide job action by more than 55,000 British Columbia nurses ended at midnight on July 25th after their bargaining association accepted settlement recommendations from two special mediators.

The Nurses’ Bargaining Association accepted the recommendations put forward by Amanda Rogers and Vince Ready following several days of intensive mediation.

“This has been the longest nurses’ strike in B.C.’s history, and it was the collective strength, determination and solidarity of more than 55,000 nurses that brought us to this point,” said BC Nurses’ Union president Adriane Gear.

“Our members changed the conversation by forcing government and health employers to confront the realities of nursing and the challenges facing our public health-care system.”

For more than three weeks, nurses participated in rotating picket lines at hospitals in the Lower Mainland and on Vancouver Island. The job action also included a provincewide refusal to perform non-nursing duties and restrictions on overtime.

The mediators’ non-binding recommendations address several concerns nurses raised about the tentative agreement reached May 22nd. They also propose steps to confront systemic problems including workplace violence and the prevalence of nurses performing non-nursing duties that pull them away from patient care.

Outstanding compensation issues are expected to proceed to binding arbitration this fall.

The recommendations are now before union members for review. The BCNU said it will not comment publicly on their substance while that process is underway.