Monday, Nov. 03, 2003

EDMONTON — In voting counted this morning, Capital Health Region general support services employees chose the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees as their union.

“We are delighted by the outcome of this vote and we will work hard to make the more than 2,000 members from other unions who will now join us feel at home in this union,” said AUPE President Dan MacLennan this morning.
The results of the Bill 27 union-representation runoff vote supervised by the Alberta Labour Relations Board, were announced just after 11 a.m. The vote means AUPE will be the union for approximately 4,800 Edmonton-area general support service employees.

AUPE and the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) were on the ballots counted today, which were mailed in to the Alberta Labour Relations Board over the summer,.

Members of AUPE, CUPE and the International Union of Operating Engineers who worked in general support jobs at Edmonton-area Capital Health Region facilities were entitled to vote.

According to this morning’s count, AUPE received 1,479 votes. CUPE received 1,125 votes.

In addition, 17 ballots were declared spoiled and 44 were set aside in sealed envelopes because of questions raised by scrutineers.

In all, the results of the vote means AUPE will be joined by approximately 2,200 new members in the Edmonton area, the majority of them former members of CUPE. (AUPE stood to lose more than 2,500 members in the vote counted this morning.)

This morning’s count marks the start of three days’ of ballot counting by the Labour Relations Board in the Bill 27 runoff process. Union runoff votes were held this summer between AUPE and CUPE affecting more than 13,000 health region general support service employees throughout Alberta.

Because of the very large numbers of health region employees affected, the votes are among the most significant events in the history of the Alberta labour movement, MacLennan said.

“Employees involved in these votes took them very seriously — the return rate on the mail-in ballots provided by the Labour Relations Board was very high everywhere,” MacLennan said.

This afternoon starting at 1 p.m., ballots will be counted to determine whether AUPE or CUPE will represent general support service employees of the Calgary Health Region.

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

“We’re relieved these ballots are being counted at last,” MacLennan said. “A very large number of health region employees have had their lives disrupted by these votes, and they deserve to be able to get on with their jobs.

“AUPE has run a good campaign that informed general support employees of the benefits of being part of our union, which we truly believe is the best union to represent the interests of Alberta health workers,” MacLennan said. “This morning’s important vote result makes us feel very good about our campaign.”

Vote counting for other health regions by the Labour Relations Board will then continue through Tuesday and Wednesday.

On Tuesday, starting at 9 a.m., ballots will be counted from runoff votes in the East Central Health Region followed by the Peace Country Health Region.

On Wednesday, starting at 9 a.m., ballots will be counted from the David Thompson Health Region and Aspen Health Region runoff votes.

In another Bill 27 runoff vote, also counted Sept. 10, more than 750 auxiliary nursing care employees in the East Central Health Region voted overwhelmingly to be represented by AUPE. AUPE, with 82 per cent of that vote, soundly defeated CUPE in that contest.

That result confirmed AUPE as the sole union for auxiliary nursing staff in all nine Alberta health regions. In the other eight Alberta health regions, AUPE had already been named the union for auxiliary nurses without a vote being required because it represented more than 80 per cent of the bargaining unit members in the region.

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

Ballots are being counted at the Labour Relations Board headquarters in Edmonton.