For immediate release: Apr. 7, 2003

EDMONTON – The Alberta Union of Provincial Employees has rejected as unfair a mediator’s report proposing a settlement for approximately 900 support workers at 17 rural hospitals.

In a letter sent today to regional health authority chief executive officers, AUPE President Dan MacLennan said the union cannot and will not agree to terms that would give AUPE members a contract inferior to that of members of another union doing the same work in the same regions.

On Saturday, April 5, members of the AUPE Local 056 bargaining team, representing members at the hospitals in four health regions, voted unanimously not to send the mediator’s report to members for a vote.

That decision is fully backed by AUPE’s leadership, MacLennan said in his letter to the health region CEOs.
MacLennan pointed out to the CEOs that the mediator’s proposal is inferior to the current terms of a multi-year agreement with the Canadian Union of Public Employees unanimously accepted by the health region CEOs in February 2001.

AUPE is not prepared to accept an inferior deal for its general support services members, MacLennan wrote. "But the mediator’s plainly unfair recommendation is made worse by the fact AUPE and CUPE must soon go head to head in runoff votes required by provincial legislation passed last month."

In the circumstances, MacLennan said, "it is very difficult for me to avoid the conclusion that the bargaining position taken by employers, and reflected in the mediator’s report, is an attempt to tilt the playing field in favour of CUPE in the runoff votes required by the Labour Relations (Regional Health Authorities Restructuring) Amendment Act, 2003."

Health sector employers are entitled to wish for any outcome they like, MacLennan noted in the letter – but "they must not attempt to influence it by bargaining stratagems."

MacLennan told the health region CEOs that AUPE expects the runoff votes to be scrupulously fair – "fairness in this case means agreements for AUPE and CUPE members doing the same work in the same regions must at least be the same."

That way, he said, employees can base their decision in the runoff votes on the relative merits of each union.
MacLennan urged the health regions to renew the mandate of their bargaining committee and instruct them to return to the table to negotiate a fair agreement with AUPE’s members.

AUPE Local 056 represents general support employees at the hospitals in Bashaw, Boyle, Daysland, Drayton Valley, Grande Prairie, Grimshaw, Islay, Killam, Lacombe, Lamont, Mayerthorpe, McLennan, Provost, Radway, Redwater, Swan Hills and Vermilion.

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