Monday, Oct. 27, 2003

The next two weeks will play a huge role in the future of AUPE, President Dan MacLennan said in his report to Convention on Oct. 23.

Depending on the results of the Bill 27 votes being counted on Nov. 3, 4 and 5, AUPE could become a union of nearly 60,000 members, MacLennan said.

“We will be bargaining contracts with the majority of our members in the next 12 months and facing huge challenges,” MacLennan said in the videotaped portion of his remarks to delegates. “But we’ve got the resources and the people in place that can help us meet the challenges, so I am very confident that next year will be extremely successful.”

MacLennan’s formal report to convention delegates and members is videotaped each year so that it can be distributed throughout the province. In addition, MacLennan always answers questions and responds to points made by convention delegates during his annual report.

“We are in the best position ever in meeting the members’ terms in bargaining and getting to where they need to be,” he said.

Regarding the bargaining goal of members, MacLennan said “our members have seen a massive increase in their power bills and the cost of living. We’ve been bargaining trying to address that and we’ve done well. We’ve had high ratification numbers, which is people voting yes to contracts.”

MacLennan noted that “things like benefits are becoming bigger and bigger (concerns) for our members, who are like most of us an aging group...I know when I go to worksites I hear more and more of the concern with improving benefits than I ever had six, eight, 10 years ago.

“You need to be negotiating improved benefit packages so the members go to work and come home knowing that their families are better protected through having better health benefits.

MacLennan addressed concerns of each sector of AUPE in his remarks.

“With the General Services, there are a number of major issues,” he said, highlighting PREP — the Point Rating Evaluation Plan — and the current round of wage re-opener negotiations.

Because of AUPE’s efforts, he said, members affected by PREP will have “the opportunity to defend their jobs and argue points, and there is a process at the end where members get a vote.”

MacLennan lauded the work of members in the Education Sector: “The Ed Sector Conference that was held this year in Canmore was an absolute roaring success”

He said it was very positive to have the Minister of Education there speaking, so that members had the opportunity to lobby the government about their concerns with funding for post-secondary education. “In post-secondary, we see dramatic levels of under-funding.”

“The Education sector led the union in high settlements,” MacLennan added. “We are very pleased with contracts coming from Olds College and al across the sector.”

In health care, MacLennan observed that Bill 27 gave the union a tough challenge to keep members’ jobs, improve their contracts and deal with the runoff votes imposed on unions by the process.

“”I think we’ve done great and I hope that everyone here stays here, and we grow by thousands more,” he said.
Runoff votes are scheduled to be counted by the Alberta Labour relations Board on Nov. 3, 4 and 5.

The Boards, Agencies and Local Governments Sector also had a very good year, MacLennan said. “Individual groups like the County of Strathcona have done well, the Research Council was able to reach a tentative agreement that was ratified by members … the Treasury Branch has reached their very good contract.”

In his remarks, MacLennan also praised the way AUPE members stood behind Alberta’s cattle industry when the so-called “Mad Cow” crisis struck last summer. “We recognized this would have a devastating financial effect on the province, which in turn effects all our bargaining,” he said. “But it is also our members who live in those communities, so we wanted to show our support for the beef industry.”

AUPE proved that it’s an important part of the province when it sponsored beef barbecues throughout Alberta last summer. “Those farmers were hurting, and that hurts the whole province, us as a union, and our members.”