LifeLabs was quietly bought up by the American company Quest Diagnostics, a Fortune 500 giant, in the summer of 2024. This company and its multimillionaire CEO & President James Davis have deep pockets from the profit they make off America’s private healthcare system – and now they are profiting off B.C. taxpayers!
We pay LifeLabs $300 million each year for their services. Those health dollars should stay in B.C. to pay fair wages and maintain the quality and sustainability of our health services – not get scooped up by an American company. Indeed, a recent poll by the BCGEU showed a majority of people (74%) in British Columbia oppose for-profit American companies owning and controlling health care services in the province.
On top of this, LifeLabs workers in B.C. are now on strike because Quest is refusing to agree to wage increases that help with the cost of living, or address unsustainable working conditions. Low wages and poor conditions threaten the quality of services we all expect from LifeLabs.
We all deserve better and that’s why we need to ask the B.C. government: Why is an American company sucking millions of public health dollars out of B.C?
Email government now to let them know you agree: B.C.’s public health dollars should go towards the well-being of workers and patients, not into the pockets of American health care CEOs!
In BC and Ontario, they’ve targeted LifeLabs, which was quietly bought up by the American company, Quest Diagnostics, in summer 2024.
Quest Diagnostics is a Fortune 500 giant that profited greatly off the COVID-19 crisis, raking in a record $3B for the quarter ended Dec. 31, 2020.This company and its multimillionaire CEO & President James Davis have deep pockets from the profit they make off America’s private healthcare system.
Now Davis is siphoning our public dollars – all of which should be going towards building a safe and dependable lab service -- into cheques for wealthy investors (including himself).
Quest estimated that its LifeLabs acquisition would bring in $970M of revenue a year.
In Canada, healthcare profiteering happens two ways:
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Charging patients for services not covered by the province.
- Shortchanging frontline workers who deliver services: By underpaying workers, understaffing/under-resourcing medical centres, and laying off staff, private companies can pocket more and dish out better dividends to shareholders.
LifeLabs staff are currently paid less than public health workers doing the same job. Starting wage for a Lab Assistant at LifeLabs in BC is $25.27 vs Hospitals $29.27 plus a signing bonus at some hospitals. This makes it hard to recruit and retain good workers which means worse patient care. There are especially large disparities in benefits and compensation for some jobs like Medical Laboratory Technologists (Wages are 11.2% - 12.3% less than hospitals).
Find out more about what Quest is doing to LifeLabs workers in BC
LifeLabs has always been a private for-profit, but with Quest at the wheel, these local workers are coming up against a multinational giant, which means they need everyone’s support.
Better working conditions for them = better, safer, reliable lab service for us.
For more information visit lifelabs.bcgeu.ca
This is an action from the BC General Employees’ Union.
