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AUPE News & Updates
Member Updates
Friday, July 11, 2003
Threat of postal strike adds urgency to ballot deadline in health
region runoff votes
EDMONTON – The threat of a national postal strike means there
is even more urgency for health region employees to mail in their ballots
for bargaining unit runoff votes.
“Time to vote is already running out in many regions, this raises
the level of urgency a notch,” said AUPE President Dan MacLennan.
Canada’s postal workers could be on strike as early as next Friday
if a new collective agreement cannot be reached between their union
and their employer.
That creates a major new wrinkle for participants in health region union
runoff votes called by the Alberta Labour Relations Board. The votes,
part of the process of creating region-wide “functional bargaining
units” mandated by Bill 27, are required in regions where two or
more unions represent more than 20 per cent of the employees in a given
bargaining unit in a health region.
The ALRB decided that ballots would be sent to eligible voters and returned
by mail – a process that is now under way in several regions.
“Deadlines for having votes in and counted are growing quite close
in many cases, even without the threat of a postal strike,” MacLennan
said. “Since the outcome of these votes will have important implications
for health workers for years to come, we urge all members who have received
ballots to get them into the mail as quickly as possible.”
The postal union (CUPW) gave notice to Canada Post and the federal Labour
Ministry on Thursday, July 10, that a strike deadline has been set for
12:01 a.m. on July 18.
Bargaining is at an impasse on several important issues, including salaries,
contracting out, retirement benefits, workload and workplace safety.
CUPW members gave their union a 92-per-cent strike mandate in June.
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