For immediate release: Feb. 10, 2003

EDMONTON – The president of the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees has requested an immediate meeting with Health and Wellness Minister Gary Mar to be held by this Friday, Feb. 14, for AUPE to receive information about the transfer of mental health services to regional health authorities.

In a letter delivered to the minister’s office earlier today, AUPE President Dan MacLennan said that if the meeting does not take place, the union will be forced to consider its options, one of which may be taking legal action on behalf of nearly 2,500 AUPE members employed by the Alberta Mental Health Board.

Only six weeks remain until April 1, 2003, when the transfer of services from the AMHB to the health regions becomes effective, MacLennan noted in his letter to Mar. Despite repeated requests since May 2002, AUPE has yet to receive any details on how the divestiture will take place or how the Board intends to deal with recognition of employee seniority and years of service or other contractual rights and legal entitlements of its members.

On Jan. 24, the minister stated he would hold a meeting with AUPE. However, officials attending in his stead could not provide AUPE with any of the information needed by AMHB union members, MacLennan said in his letter.
(A copy of the letter is included with this news release.)

At the same time as AUPE has been trying, without success, to get basic information on the transfer, the union has been bargaining a new contract for employees of the AMHB.

"In bargaining this week AUPE’s negotiating team was astounded to learn that the employer intends to ignore a recent precedent setting court decision dealing with sucessorship rights and employee severance in a situation very similar to this one," MacLennan told Mar in the letter.

Taken together, he said, the lack of information and the intent to ignore legal precedent "display a disregard for an important group of front line health care workers and an equal disregard for the law."

MacLennan advised the minister AUPE does not want its members to be forced to file hundreds of grievances to enforce their rights during the transfer nor does it want to have to take legal action.

However, he said, with time running out, "we will have no option but to consider appropriate responses to this situation."

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)