For immediate release: Mar. 21, 2003

PONOKA – In an important vote, Registered Nurses and Registered Psychiatric Nurses at the Alberta Hospital Ponoka have voted to remain members of the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees and said no to UNA.

"Local organizers here in Ponoka did a terrific job of making the case that our members were best served by remaining a key part of AUPE," said AUPE President Dan MacLennan, who was in the central Alberta community for the Alberta Labour Relations Board supervised vote.

"We are very gratified by the faith shown by our members in the strength and solidarity of AUPE in the face of a raid by the United Nurses of Alberta," MacLennan said. UNA had applied for a certification vote for RNs and RPNs at the large mental health facility in Ponoka.

"Our activists in all departments at Alberta Hospital Ponoka have shown incredible unity and strength over the years, including taking part in the province-wide health care strike in May 2000, and they will continue to work every day for these members on the Ponoka site," MacLennan said.

"Throughout the past year, AUPE has led the way in the fight to get information on the transfer of mental health services from the Alberta Mental Health Board to the health regions, and to protect the entitlements of AMHB employees during the transfer," MacLennan said.

"It was our members who were out in force on information pickets in Ponoka on Feb. 28 to defend the rights of all hospital employees, including these RNs and RPNs," he noted.

"I believe these members recognized that AUPE will continue to lead the fight for fair treatment of all health workers in the face of the government’s Bill 27," MacLennan said. He noted that Bill 27 strips more health workers of the right to strike and takes legally negotiated severance provisions away from AMHB employees, including the nurses at Ponoka who voted Friday to remain in AUPE.

"We hope to be bargaining in the next few days to conclude a collective agreement for these nurses," MacLennan said.

AUPE – Alberta’s largest union with about 53,000 members – represents about 800 employees at Alberta Hospital Ponoka, about 200 of them RNs and RPNs.

For more information, contact:
Dan MacLennan, President, AUPE, 780-930-3301 or 780-910-8392 (cellular phone)
Dean Cunningham, Chair, AUPE Local 042/002 (Ponoka Nurses), 403-704-7048 (cellular phone)
Marilyn Dewan, Bargaining Committee Chair, AUPE Local 042/002, 403-783-1543 (cellular phone)
David Climenhaga, Communications Director, AUPE, 780-930-3311 or 780-717-2943 (cellular pnone)