Alberta Union of Provincial Employees

Member Updates

Member Update: Monday, Oct. 18, 2004

AUPE Convention ‘a huge undertaking, well worth the effort’

EDMONTON — As AUPE’s 28th annual convention drew to a close Saturday, 595 delegates prepared to depart for home satisfied they had conducted the union’s business for another year, participated in a powerful demonstration of solidarity with members at NorQuest College and elected two new Vice-Presidents.

Despite a heavy snowstorm that blew in Friday night, there were 728 participants, including staff, observers, guests and Life Members, on the convention floor bright and early Saturday morning.

Convention began on Thursday, Oct. 14, and was preceded by a day of sectoral meetings on Oct. 13.
“A convention this size is a huge undertaking, but it is well worth the effort,” said AUPE President Dan MacLennan Saturday morning. “Our members return to their worksites invigorated and recommitted to AUPE, and employers like NorQuest College see that we are a union of 60,000 members prepared to support one another.”

The day before, more than 500 delegates and others boarded buses and rode first to Edmonton’s Gallagher ski hill, where they posed for a photograph celebrating AUPE’s growth in membership to more than 60,000, and then went on to NorQuest College, where negotiations between the employer and AUPE Local 071/010 have been at an impasse since July.

At NorQuest, they bolstered Local 071/010’s approximately 220 members in an enthusiastic information picket.

Key issues in the dispute at NorQuest are salaries and the treatment of large numbers of so-called “term-employees,” who do not receive full-time employees’ benefits despite in many cases having worked for a decade or more for the college.
In what must have been an unusual development in labour history, the 11 buses that took convention delegates to the events were escorted through rush-hour traffic by Edmonton police officers, red and blue lights flashing.

Friday morning, Krista Koroluk and Garnett Robinson were elected as AUPE Vice-Presidents in a by-election vote.
The two will serve one-year terms until the next regularly scheduled election for AUPE’s Executive Committee at the 29th annual convention in October 2005.

Koroluk, a Lamont home care worker and member of Local 043/008, has served as an active Union Steward, Chapter Secretary-Treasurer, Local Council representative, Provincial Executive member and member of AUPE’s standing Young Activists’ Committee.

Robinson w as re-elected by delegates after being elected last summer by members of the Provincial Executive to complete a Vice-Presidential term left vacant.
“I’ve challenged the members over the past year and I hope they continue to challenge me to help make AUPE the best union it can possibly be,” said Robinson, 48, after the vote.

Robinson, a child and youth care worker in the Lac La Biche Youth Assessment Centre, has been an employee of Alberta Children’s Services since 1985. He has served AUPE members in many areas, including as Local 006 Provincial Executive rep, bargaining committee member and chair of the AUPE members Benefits Committee.

President MacLennan also praised the third candidate in the race, Local 054 member Bill Fleming.
“Local 054 is the big winner today,” he said, “because they get to keep Bill.
“We need more leaders in this union like Bill Fleming,” MacLennan told delegates. “The guy works tirelessly for our union.”

Speakers at convention included Hemi Mitic, Assistant to Canadian Autoworkers President Buzz Hargrove, whose rip-roaring remarks had members laughing, cheering and frequently on their feet.
Union members, Mitic told delegates, “ you are fighting for a really noble cause, and we have to continue that fight.”

Keynote speaker Mark Lisac, the author of a new book on Alberta politics, told delegates that their province has come to a “political dead end,” but suggested several remedies that could reinvigorate democracy in Alberta.
Among his suggestions: introduce a system of proportional representation, pay individual Alberta citizens “hefty dividend payments” out of Alberta’s soaring energy revenues and for delegates to get involved, as individuals, in election campaigns.

On the convention’s opening day, Thursday, Edmonton Mayor Bill Smith welcomed delegates, observing, “I know how critical it is to keep the lines of communication open” between employers and their unionized employees.” (The next day, his electoral competitors, Steven Mandell and Robert Noce, put in cameo appearances at convention, as did Liberal Opposition Leader Kevin Taft and former Alberta NDP leader Raj Pannu.)

Of this year’s convention theme — Delivering Quality Public Services — Smith commented: “I can speak for our unions at the City of Edmonton, this is exactly what they do, provide quality public services.”

In his video report to delegates that morning, AUPE President Dan MacLennan spoke of the remarkable successes enjoyed by AUPE in the past year. “We can all be very proud of the growth in our union’s membership, the addition off new regional offices and continuing success we have enjoyed at the bargaining table,” he said in his written report.

A link to MacLennan’s video release will be available soon.

Later on opening day, AUPE Executive Secretary-Treasurer Ed Mardell told delegates that after a period of growth, the union faces the prospect of a period of financial stability. “Just a decade ago, in the era of government cutbacks, AUPE faced serious financial difficulties. What a different world we live in today!”

The Vice-Presidents’ reports were also presented to convention for ratification on Thursday.

Wednesday night, the Women’s Committee’s “AUPE Idol” competition had convention delegates literally dancing in the aisles — all in the cause of financing research to find a cure for breast cancer.

The Idol competition and auction was organized by the committee to raise funds for breast cancer research. AUPE Finance Department staff said at the convention’s closing that more than $20,400 was raised from the silent auction, public auction and sale of playing cards organized for the event.

The judges’ panel, led by AUPE Executive Secretary-Treasurer Ed Mardell, had no easy task choosing the top three (actually four, thanks to a tie) competitors from a field of 14 registered competitors.

As Mardell observed, every time a new singer opened his or her mouth and managed to hit all the high notes, the committee sank deeper into despair at the difficult choices they faced.

They named Ellen Pollard of Local 071/010 at NorQuest College the AUPE Idol for her terrific rendition of Roberta Flack’s The First Time.

Second place went to Margaret Heil and Tonya Malo of Local 054 and Christine Sharp and Mary Kehoe of Local 049, who sang Rod Stewart’s Motown.

The judges awarded third place to both Jennifer O’Neill of Local 054, who sang the Dixie Chicks’ Sin Wagon, and Denise Kochalyk of Local 095, who sang Every Little Thing.

“This contest was so much fun,” enthused Vice-President Lynne Gingras, Chair of the Women’s Committee. “I never knew we had so much musical talent in our union, and getting together for a good cause resulted in a night of entertainment second to none.”

During the convention’s closing session, delegates also raised $2,196 for AUPE local 060 member Brad Smith, who is running as the Liberal candidate in the Edmonton-Calder riding. Another $1,460 was raised off the convention floor for a member who is ill, supplemented by Smith with $500 from his campaign donations.

AUPE garments worth more than $26,000 were sold during convention and in the days before by locals buying garments for members.

More details on convention activities can be read in the four editions of EyeOpener, AUPE’s daily convention newsletter.

Click below to read the EyeOpeners.