For immediate release: Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2003

EDMONTON — General support service employees have chosen the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees as their union in all six health regions where it fought historic runoff representation votes with the Canadian Union of Public Employees.

The votes of general support employees in the Aspen and David Thompson health regions were counted this morning by the Alberta Labour Relations Board, giving AUPE a clean sweep in the hard-fought campaigns that began when the Legislature passed Bill 27 in March.

Today’s vote counts crowned AUPE’s achievement in the votes tallied yesterday and Monday in which general support service employees in the Capital, Calgary, East Central and Peace Country health regions all chose AUPE as their union over CUPE.

As a result, AUPE’s membership in Alberta will soar by approximately 6,800. (AUPE had stood to lose more than 7,000 members if it had lost all the votes.)

“This remarkable outcome would never have happened without the enthusiastic support of hundreds of AUPE members, members of other unions who wanted to be part of AUPE and our union staff,” AUPE President Dan MacLennan said this morning. “From the bottom of my heart I thank them all.”

In the David Thompson Health Region vote counted first this morning, AUPE received 778 votes to 457 for CUPE. Five ballots were spoiled. The Central Alberta health region has its headquarters in Red Deer.

In the Aspen Health Region vote counted next, AUPE received 393 votes and CUPE received 308. There were no spoiled ballots. The region runs across north-central Alberta from Jasper to Cold Lake.

“It’s not every day that a union’s membership can grow by 6,800 in a week,” MacLennan said after the counting ended.

AUPE, Alberta’s largest union before the vote, will now grow to approximately 58,000 members. AUPE had about 37,000 members when MacLennan became president six years ago.

“This campaign has been a positive and inspiring experience,” MacLennan said. “At the same time, it has been an enormous amount of work.

“The task we now face is to ensure that we maintain the high standards of service to members that were a key factor in winning these votes,” MacLennan said. “That job starts immediately.

“We will do everything possible to make our new members feel welcome and valued in AUPE,” he stated.

Runoff votes were held this summer between AUPE and CUPE affecting more than 13,000 health region general support service employees throughout Alberta. Ballots had to be mailed back to the Alberta Labour Relations Board by eligible health region employees.

Members of AUPE, CUPE, the Health Sciences Association of Alberta (HSAA) and the International Union of Operating Engineers who worked in general support jobs were entitled to vote.

Click here for the full results of all six votes.

Today’s vote counts marked the end of three days of ballot counting by the Labour Relations Board in the Bill 27 runoff process.

All the votes were mandated by Bill 27 — provincial legislation passed last March that restructured labour relations in Alberta’s nine health regions.

In another Bill 27 runoff vote, counted on Sept. 10, more than 750 auxiliary nursing care employees in the East Central Health Region voted overwhelmingly to be represented by AUPE. That result confirmed AUPE as the sole union for auxiliary nursing staff in all nine Alberta health regions.

AUPE now represents all 8,500 auxiliary nursing care employees directly employed by Alberta’s nine health regions.

AUPE now faces the task of negotiating new region-wide collective agreements from the existing agreements in each health region.

For more information, contact:
Dan MacLennan, President, AUPE, 780-930-3301 or 780-232-8392 (NEW cellular phone)
David Climenhaga, Communications Director, AUPE, 780-930-3311 or 780-717-2943 (cellular phone)