For immediate release: Monday, May 5, 2003

EDMONTON – Alberta Union of Provincial Employees members who work at continuing-care facilities in Edmonton, Calgary and Lethbridge have ratified a mediator’s recommendation for a new collective agreement with the Continuing Care Employers Bargaining Association.

A provincially appointed mediator recommended terms of settlement for the two-year agreement for approximately 1,350 AUPE members in early April after the members overwhelmingly rejected a "final offer" by the employer negotiating group.

"Unlike the so-called ‘final offer’ CCEBA made in March, this proposal by the mediator was essentially the same in most important respects as AUPE’s Multi-Facility Auxiliary Nursing Agreement," said AUPE President Dan MacLennan. "That’s what our members were looking for at this time.

"AUPE took the position that members who do the same kind of work in the same kinds of facilities should be treated the same way, and this agreement achieved that goal," MacLennan said. "In addition, all the concessions sought by the employer in the ‘final offer’ were removed from the mediator’s report," he said.

The package ratified by AUPE’s members includes:

• Pay increases of four per cent in the first year and three per cent in the second year.
  
• Education increments for nursing attendants with certain certificates.
  
• A direct-payment health benefits card.
  
• Preceptor pay – a premium paid to licensed practical nurses who help train student LPNs.
  
• Double-time overtime.
  
• Increases in weekend premium pay and shift differential pay to $1.75 per hour.
  
• Removal from the table of all rollbacks sought by the employer in the CCEBA "final offer."

"We’re satisfied that this is a fair agreement that establishes a platform from which AUPE can negotiate additional improvements in the future," said AUPE Staff Negotiator Terry Agoto.

The AUPE bargaining committee had recommended that members ratify the improved settlement put forward by the mediator, said Agoto, who led the union bargaining committee.

The employers have until May 13 to ratify the mediator’s recommendation. If they do so, it will form the basis of a new collective agreement between AUPE and employers represented by CCEBA.

In his report, the mediator strongly urged both parties to ratify the agreement.

The AUPE members work as licensed practical nurses, personal care attendants, nursing attendants, physiotherapy attendants, recreation attendants, occupational therapy attendants and clinic attendants who come under the CCEBA agreement.

Their employers include the Capital Care Group, which is a subsidiary of Region 6, the Capital Health Region; St. Joseph’s Auxiliary Hospital (Edmonton); St. Michael’s Long Term Care Centre (Edmonton); Bethany Care Society (Calgary); and St. Michael’s Health Centre (Lethbridge).
AUPE is Alberta’s largest union, with approximately 53,000 members.

For more information, contact:
Dan MacLennan, President, AUPE, 780-930-3301 or 780-910-8392 (cellular phone)
Terry Agoto, Staff Negotiator, AUPE, 780-930 3309 or 780-720-2226 (cellular phone)
David Climenhaga, Communications Director, AUPE, 780-930-3311 or 780-717-2943 (cellular phone)