EDMONTON – Radio advertisements pressing Extendicare (Canada) Inc. to reach a fair deal with its striking employees at a nursing home in the town of Athabasca will begin running tomorrow in several Alberta locations, says the president of the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees.

"AUPE is not prepared to allow this large for-profit health care company from eastern Canada to conduct its labour relations in this manner without exposing it to public scrutiny," AUPE President Dan MacLennan said.

"They are not going to get away with allowing this strike to go on out of sight of the public because it is in a small town far from their base of operations in Ontario," he said.

"One of the ways we intend to cast light on this situation is by radio advertising, which we are prepared to consider extending to other markets where Extendicare is active if need be," MacLennan added.

Initially, the ads will run on two large Edmonton radio stations that broadcast extensively throughout northern and central Alberta, and on local radio in Athabasca. Click here to listen to the radio ad.

MacLennan said Extendicare needs to sit down now and negotiate a fair collective agreement with this small group of employees, which as a company with $1.8 billion in revenue in its last reported fiscal year it can well afford to do.

Thirty-two employees of the Extendicare continuing care facility in the town of Athabasca, all women, have been on strike for a fair collective agreement since Feb. 11.

The members of AUPE Local 2424/009 are seeking wage parity with other Extendicare employees at facilities in the same region, and with other health care workers doing similar work in the same community.

At present, Extendicare employees in Athabasca are paid a starting salary $2.41 per hour less than that paid other Extendicare workers in nearby communities, and $2 less than AUPE members doing the same work for the Aspen Health Region in the Athabasca Health Centre, said AUPE Union Representative Steve Nimchuk.

Extendicare has been using management staff from other facilities and other strikebreakers to run the Athabasca facility, Nimchuk noted.

AUPE is prepared to return to the table at any time to negotiate a reasonable agreement, Nimchuk said.


For more information, contact:

Dan MacLennan, President, AUPE, 780-930-3301 or 780-910-8392 (cellular phone)
Steve Nimchuk, Union Representative, AUPE, 780-930-3341 or 780-919-4831 (cellular phone)
David Climenhaga, Communications Director, AUPE, 780-930-3311 or 780-717-2943 (cellular phone).

Contact Climenhaga by phone or by e-mail at d.climenhaga@aupe.org for an MP3 file of the radio advertisement.

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