Bargaining Update: Friday, Dec. 17, 2004

CALGARY — As the holiday season approached at the end of December, bargaining was continuing between the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees and the Calgary Health Region for a new collective agreement for all of the region’s Auxiliary Nursing Care employees.

One contentious issue in the negotiations for the new region-wide ANC agreement required under Bill 27 has been Article 20, Hours of Work, said AUPE Staff Negotiator Jim Petrie.

The AUPE proposal now on the table is designed to preserve local conditions for those employees now under the current Multi-Employer Auxiliary Nursing Agreement, the AUPE Community Health Agreement, the AUPE agreements affecting the Alberta Mental Health Board and the old Care in the Community Agreement, Petrie said.

By contrast, the employer proposal would:

• Eliminate the selection process for shift rotations now in effect in the Multi Agreement.
  
• Eliminate optional shift scheduling.
  
• Eliminate the Multi provision that requires two consecutive days off.
  
• Eliminate the prohibition on split shifts except where they are contained in specific local conditions.
  
• Continue the provision under the Care in the Community Agreement of having to take every third Monday or Friday off, thereby reducing hours of full-time work.

AUPE needs to hear from members to gauge their reaction to these employer proposals.

Members can contact the bargaining committee by calling or emailing Bargaining Committee members at the phone numbers and email addresses shown below.

Meanwhile, some progress has been seen in other areas of the negotiations in bargaining that took place since the last Bargaining Update was published in September.

Since that update, seven full days of negotiations were held on Oct. 21-22, Nov. 23-24 and Dec. 15-17.

Further bargaining has been scheduled for:

• Jan. 18-19, 2005
• Jan. 25-27, 2005

To date, the following articles have been agreed to and signed off

• Article 2 — Application
• Article 3 — Management Rights
• Article 4 — Recognition
• Article 5 — Bulletin Boards
• Article 6 — Membership & Dues
• Article 7 — Negotiations
• Article 9 — Grievance Procedure
• Article 10 — Union Stewards
• Article 11 — Employee-Employer Relations
• Article 13 — Probation
• Article 17 — Promotions
• Article 19 — Reclassification
• Article 38 — Pension Plans
• Article 39 — Terms
• Article 40 — Notices
• Unnumbered Article — Performance Appraisals

Your Bargaining team has now tabled formal proposals for all outstanding non-monetary articles. Proposals on monetary articles will be tabled at a future date.

Click here for an easy-to-print PDF version of this page.

Continued Negotiations

As negations continue between AUPE and the Calgary Health Region, there will be regular newsletter updates like this one.

The names of the Bargaining Committee are included in this newsletter and you are welcome to contact them for more detailed information.

Also, this Website will be updated from time to time with the most current information.

As negotiations continue, special meetings may be held about specific issues.

Calgary Health Auxiliary Nursing Bargaining Committee
Sue Moore
Foothills Hospital/S.A.R.P.
542-4443
suzique@telus.net
Glen Scott
Care in the Community
208-4918
dialyzer2000@yahoo.com
Susan Slade
Multi/AMHB
suslade@hotmail.com
Eloise Crooks
Community Health
625-4385
crooks@telusplanet.net
Jim Petrie
Negotiator
1-800-232-7284, Press 1
j.petrie@aupe.org