EDMONTON – Employees at three Bethany nursing homes in the Camrose area have overwhelmingly ratified their first collective agreement.

"These employees now have a significant number of benefits and protections that they did not enjoy as non-union workers," said Alberta Union of Provincial Employees President Dan MacLennan after the two-year contract was ratified Thursday by the employees at the three seniors’ lodges operated by the Bethany Group.

Approximately 70 employees at Bashaw Valley Lodge, Stoney Creek Lodge and Rosealta Lodge voted last December to have AUPE become their union.

"This agreement will give the employees a nine-per-cent wage increase," MacLennan said. "In addition, it gives them a grievance procedure, a job-posting policy, provisions for leave of absence and a special leave.

"This puts them in a far stronger position to negotiate future improvements, and it puts them in a more secure position than they would have been without a union contract," MacLennan said.

AUPE Union Representative Wayne Trimble, who negotiated the agreement, noted that AUPE is the largest union in the Camrose area and continues to attract new members there, as it does throughout Alberta.

"The benefits these employees gain by being part of a union will be enhanced by the fact their union is the largest in the part of Alberta in which they live," he said.

"AUPE is committed to organizing workers who do not no have the benefits of union membership," Trimble added. "These workers made an important gain by voting to join AUPE in December, and we expect other working people in the Camrose area to make the same decision in the months ahead."

Trimble is based in Camrose, working out of AUPE’s East Central Regional Office in that city.


For more information:
Dan MacLennan, President, AUPE, 780-930-3301 or 780-910-8392 (cellular phone)
Wayne Trimble, Union Representative, AUPE, 780-672-8877 or 780-679-5734 (cell phone)
David Climenhaga, Communications Director, AUPE, 780-930-3311 or 780-717-2943 (cell phone)

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