EDMONTON – Alberta Union of Provincial Employees President Dan MacLennan said today the union will seek leave to appeal an Alberta Court of Appeal’s decision to uphold an imposed fine from May 2000’s provincial health care negotiations.

"We have great respect for the Court of Appeal, but we believe that they are wrong," MacLennan stated. "We are talking to our lawyers now, and we intend to seek leave to the Supreme Court of Canada to appeal this decision."

The Court of Appeal’s 2-1 split decision upheld a lower court’s decisions against the union, but reduced the fine from $400,000 to $200,000. AUPE has already paid the $400,000 fine.

The circumstances leading to today’s decision began during AUPE’s May 2000 negotiations with the Provincial Health Authorities of Alberta, when approximately 10,000 union members, frustrated by the employer’s refusal to negotiate a fair contract, walked off the job in defiance of the law.

A practice of the PHAA has been to try to force the union into binding arbitration – a process union members distrust and believe is highly biased in favour of employers.

The strike lasted two days, after which a fair settlement was reached.
AUPE launched the appeal on Sept. 4, 2001, arguing that union lawyers had been denied the right to cross-examine witnesses or call their own witnesses and that the union had therefore not had the opportunity to properly defend itself.

The labour strife that led to the court case illustrates the need for a new approach to labour relations and labour law in Alberta, MacLennan said.

"If the PHAA had conducted negotiations in 2000 in a way that our members felt was fair, tax dollars that have been wasted on this case could have been used to improve the health care system," he said.

"This should remind us of the need to move forward in a spirit of good faith and co-operation in the current round of health sector negotiations that are now under way with the same employers," MacLennan said.

" We would hope the PHAA has learned from what happened in the last round of negotiating and stops its efforts to force this round of negotiations into arbitration."
MacLennan said a fundamental reason for labour unrest in Alberta’s health care sector stems from two aspects of the province’s labour legislation:

" The blanket ban on strikes at health care facilities, which in effect deems all health care workers to be providing essential services.
" Binding arbitration procedures that, time and again, have been proved to be blatantly unfair to employees.

"Relying on the binding arbitration process destabilizes negotiations in this province because union members do not trust the process and have learned that they are usually treated unfairly," MacLennan said.

"Treating all health care workers as providers of essential services is a blatantly unfair attempt to hamstring the effectiveness of union negotiators at the bargaining table," he added.

MacLennan called on the province to draft legislation that will declare only certain health care workers to be providers of essential services, but will give most others the right to strike.

"This will protect the public, patients in care, hospital administration and even the government from the political crisis caused by illegal strikes," MacLennan said. "At the same time, it will assure health care employees that they are being treated fairly."

For more information, contact:
Dan MacLennan, President, AUPE, 780-910-8392 (cellular phone)
Ron Hodgins, Manager, Special Operations, AUPE, 780-930-3344 or 984-7600 (cellular phone)
David Climenhaga, Communications Director, AUPE, 780-930-3311 or 780-7171-2943 (cellular phone)

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