For immediate release: Friday, June 6, 2003

EDMONTON – Members of AUPE’s General Service Bargaining Committee sat down together today to begin hammering out an appropriate bargaining position in the upcoming wage-reopener negotiations with the Alberta provincial government.

Formal notice that the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees will begin bargaining will be served to the provincial government some time after the GSBC meeting in Edmonton.

In 2001, AUPE and the province agreed during negotiations for the collective agreement now in effect to sit down to wage-reopener talks on behalf of direct provincial government employees in the third year of the agreement.

"That time is now," said AUPE President Dan MacLennan after the first meeting of the GSBC. "The challenge that faces us will be setting out a position that recognizes the important contribution of Alberta government employees and the rising cost of living."

"We are in the last year of an agreement that saw major improvements in the agreement negotiated for government of Alberta employees," said AUPE Union Representative Jim Petrie, who will lead the wage-reopener negotiations.

"The key factor from our point of view is that inflation has been rising faster in Alberta than in other provinces," said Petrie, a veteran union negotiator.

"Inflation continues to increase at a rate not anticipated when the agreement was originally negotiated," Petrie said.

Petrie said informal talks already held with government negotiators have tentatively targeted mid-August as the starting time for bargaining.

AUPE’s research department is preparing an economic analysis for use by the GSBC. Click here to view the latest copy of Economic Outlook by AUPE Research Officer Aaron Mireau.

For more information, 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)