For immediate release: Feb. 14, 2003

EDMONTON – In a vote counted late Thursday evening, AUPE members employed in support work at the University of Alberta Hospital and Glenrose Rehabilitation Hospital voted to ratify a mediator’s recommended terms of settlement for a new contract.

If the mediator’s recommendation is now ratified by the Capital Health Authority, it will form the basis of a new three-year collective agreement for the approximately 2,800 members of Local 054 of the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees.

Members at both worksites ratified the terms of settlement proposed by the provincially appointed mediator.
The settlement will give all employees except those in housekeeping and dietary jobs pay increases of four per cent in the first year, three per cent in the second and a "wage re-opener" in the third year. (In a wage re-opener, the parties to the contract agree to renegotiate wages in the third year of the agreement, but to leave all other provisions unchanged.)

Housekeeping and dietary employees will receive a flat payment of one per cent off the grid in each year of the agreement, plus a guarantee of job security for the life of the agreement.
The terms ratified by the members also include an increase in shift and weekend differential pay to $1.75 per hour, double-time overtime and other improvements.

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