Tuesday, Sept. 9, 2003

EDMONTON — The Alberta Labour Relations Board has notified AUPE and the other parties involved that counting of ballots in the Bill 27 runoff votes will commence tomorrow — Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2003.

Ballot counting will begin at 9 a.m. Wednesday at the ALRB’s headquarters in Edmonton, board officials confirmed in a letter to unions and employers involved in the runoff-vote process.

Ballots will be counted first for the votes by General Support Services employees in two health regions where three unions were on the ballot — the David Thompson Health Region (Region 4) and the Aspen Regional Health Authority (Region 7).

If any union receives more than 50 per cent of the vote in one of those regions, it will be declared the union representing all General Support Services employees in the region.

If no union receives more than 50 per cent of the vote, the union with the lowest vote will be dropped from the ballot and a second runoff vote will be held by the ALRB.

“AUPE entered the votes in both those regions representing a minority of employees, but we ran a positive campaign that took the high-road and we look forward to seeing the results of the votes,” AUPE President Dan MacLennan said today.

The ALRB said counting of ballots will take place as follows:

• Wednesday, Sept. 10, 9 a.m. — Region 4 (David Thompson Health Region) General Support Services bargaining agency vote among AUPE, CUPE and HSAA.
• Wednesday, Sept. 10, 1 p.m. — Region 7 (Aspen Regional Health Authority) General Support Services bargaining agency vote among AUPE, CUPE and HSAA.
• Wednesday, Sept. 10, after completion of previous vote counts — Region 5 (East Central Health) Auxiliary Nursing Care bargaining agency vote between AUPE and CUPE.
  

The approximate percentage breakdown of members among the three unions before the votes took place was as follows:

• David Thompson Health Region General Support Services employees — AUPE, 28 per cent; CUPE, 46 per cent; HSAA, 26 per cent; total employees, approximately 1,860
  
• Aspen Regional Health Authority General Support Services employees — AUPE, 22 per cent; CUPE, 62 per cent; HSAA, 16 per cent; total employees, approximately 800.
  
• East Central Health Auxiliary Nursing Care employees — AUPE, 79.6 per cent; CUPE, 20.4 per cent; total employees, approximately 820.
  

The ALRB said ballot counting would continue the next day as follows:

• Thursday, Sept. 11, 9 a.m. —Region 6 (Capital Health Region) Auxiliary Nursing Care receiving agreement vote.
  
• Thursday, Sept. 11, 1 p.m. — Region 3 (Calgary Health Region) Auxiliary Nursing Care receiving agreement vote.
  

Counting for the other bargaining agency votes will be scheduled as soon as possible and the parties will be advised once the scheduling is finalized, the ALRB said.

AUPE was also on ballots to represent General Support Services employees in Region 3 (Calgary Health Region), Region 5 (East Central Health), Region 6 (Capital Health Region) and Region 8 (Peace Country Health).

In March, the government of Alberta introduced Bill 27, an act that required the formation of large region-wide bargaining units in Alberta’s nine health regions.

The bill was passed by the Legislature later that month.

Votes were ordered by the ALRB to determine which union would represent employees in bargaining units where two or more unions represented more than 20 per cent of the employees at the time the legislation came into effect.