EDMONTON – The Alberta Union of Provincial Employees is treating the wage offer made Thursday by the Provincial Health Authorities of Alberta to about 7,000 licensed practical nurses and nursing attendants as an opening position of relatively minor significance.

"We have barely started a long and complex round of negotiations," said AUPE President Dan MacLennan.

"We expect to reach a wage settlement that is satisfactory to both parties in the fullness of time," he stated.

"After very large raises have been given to some members of the Alberta health care team, a very small offer like this one is bound to disappoint, hurt and anger our members," MacLennan said.

PHAA, an umbrella bargaining organization that negotiates for Alberta’s health regions, offered the LPNs and NAs at more than 100 care facilities in all of the province’s 17 health regions pay increases of 2 per cent in each of the first two years of a proposed three-year contract.

The LPNs and NAs, who are skilled and fully qualified members of Alberta’s health care team, provide the majority of hands-on, bedside care in Alberta’s hospitals and care facilities.

"The PHAA’s statement may make bargaining more difficult, but we have cautioned our members that this is an opening position by the PHAA and that we have lots of work to do before we can sign a contract," MacLennan said. "It is early days yet. We are not about to rush into a bad collective agreement."

While some progress has been made in the negotiations for a multi-facility contract for the LPNs and NAs, many issues remain unresolved, MacLennan said.

Among the important issues still unresolved are shift and weekend differential pay, vacations and overtime pay, said AUPE Union Representative Jim Petrie, who leads the union’s bargaining team.

"Our members work the same shifts as other members of the health care team, and they deserve to be treated in a comparable manner," Petrie said.

"AUPE is prepared to continue working in a spirit of goodwill to resolve these issues," he said. "But we recognize that may take some time."

MacLennan cautioned that references by the PHAA to 16-per-cent raises in the last AUPE collective agreement and "other double-digit increases" may mislead some members of the public.

"A very large portion of our members received only eight per cent over the life of the last two-year collective agreement," he explained.

"The other ‘double-digit increases’ were given to groups such as Registered Nurses and physicians and it has always been our position that simple fairness demands our members be treated in a comparable fashion," he said.

Those AUPE members who did receive more received it to properly compensate them for the fact that according to Alberta government figures they do more than 70 per cent of the duties of RNs," MacLennan said.

"But that was before the RNs received their major pay increases last year," he said. "Again, fairness requires that the duties performed by these employees be reflected in their pay."


For more information, contact:
Dan MacLennan, President, AUPE, 780-930-3301 or 780-910-8392 (cellular phone)
Jim Petrie, Union Representative, AUPE, 780-930-3335 or 780-919-4415 (cellular phone)
David Climenhaga, Communications Director, AUPE, 780-930-3311 or 780-717-2943 (cellular phone)

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