My union is a great team!
Name: Shyam Jinna
Occupation: Coordinator, Porter Services at BC Children’s Hospital
Union: HEU
The union is my team,” says Shyam Jinna, a coordinator in porter services at BC Children’s Hospital. “It is based on teamwork and mutual support.”
Jinna has high praise for HEU because at his workplace members are urged to enlist the aid of their union if problems can’t be resolved.
“In non-union jobs you’re always afraid of being laid off and there is no one to back you up. But with the union you feel that you’re not alone.”
Jinna came to Canada from Fiji as a landed immigrant at five years of age, with his parents and two sisters. A middle child, he grew up in Nanaimo. After graduating from Nanaimo District Secondary School Jinna held many jobs, including work with MacDonald’s,Walmart, Real Canadian Wholesale, Chevron and Gateway Casino.
After being laid off along with many Gateway employees, Jinna returned to school and graduated from Discovery Community College with his residential care attendant diploma. His first care aide job in White Rock spurred his dream to work full-time in a hospital.
But it took more than a year of a dedicated search for work before Jinna found full-time employment in porter services at BC Children’s Hospital in December 2010.
Jinna is proud of his HEU brothers and sisters who work with management to problem-solve. “They are never negative and they work well as a team to resolve issues,” he says. “The union is always there to support you – to give you moral support and to defend you. With the union you have guaranteed holidays and wages, and your seniority counts. Your mind can be relaxed and sound because of the comfort of knowing someone will always have your back.”
So Jinna encourages his union sisters and brothers to attend meetings and events. An HEU shop steward, he has taken introductory courses and is eager for more training.
And he loves the varied duties of his work – delivering patients to x-ray and surgical day care, delivering blood, working in the OR as a porter aide, stocking cupboards, ensuring teammates get breaks on time, getting IV stretchers and supporting the care team.
A volunteer with the Delta Police for the past three years, Jinna also enjoys helping his community. His volunteering ranges from assisting with setting up speed traps, radar guns and watching for jay-walkers, to handing out candies at parades and assisting at air shows.
Jinna’s passions are hockey, soccer, beach sports, volleyball, and travel. He has travelled widely – to England, France, Hawaii, New Zealand, Australia, Fiji and California.
Positive and dynamic, Jinna values the importance of family and the support it gives him – a lesson taught and modelled by the supportive team of his own family.