For immediate release: Tuesday, May 13, 2003

CALGARY – Approximately 320 members of the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees employed by the Dr. Vernon Fanning Centre have overwhelmingly ratified a new two-year collective agreement.

Subject to ratification by the employer, the agreement between Carewest and AUPE Local 048/007 will give employees pay increases of four per cent in the first year, retroactive to July 1, 2002, and three per cent in the second year, said AUPE Staff Negotiator Ken Cutrell.

Cutrell, who led the AUPE bargaining team, said the agreement also includes increases in shift and weekend pay to $1.75 per hour, double-time overtime and a new educational allowance for Nursing Attendants.

The agreement, which affects auxiliary nursing staff such as Licensed Practical Nurses and Nursing Attendants at the Calgary continuing-care facility, expires on July 1, 2004.

"This deal is similar in all details to the agreement signed between AUPE and the Continuing Care Employers Bargaining Association," Cutrell said. "It is a fair agreement and the membership obviously agrees given the strength of their ratification."

Cutrell noted that AUPE has now also negotiated similar agreements at several other Calgary facilities run by Carewest, which is wholly owned by the Calgary Health Region.

Ratification votes by members of AUPE Locals 048/006, 048/008 and 048/009 at the George Boyack, Glenmore Park and Crossbow centres are scheduled to take place Thursday. These agreements will need to be ratified by the employer as well.

Approximately 310 AUPE members work at the three sites that will vote Thursday. Employees at those three sites voted in 1999 to leave the Canadian Union of Public Employees and come to AUPE.

AUPE is Alberta’s largest union, with 53,000 members.

For more information, contact:
Dan MacLennan, President, AUPE, 780-930-3301 or 780-910-8392 (cellular phone)
Ken Cutrell, Union Representative, AUPE, 403-531-8610 or 403-861-2051 (cellular phone)
David Climenhaga, Communications Director, AUPE, 780-930-3311 or 780-717-2943 (cellular phone)