Members of AUPE Local 042, joined by members of other locals and headquarters staff, took part in an information picket at the Alberta Hospital Ponoka on Feb. 28.

Their objective was to draw media and public attention to their concerns about progress in bargaining for a new collective agreement and the province’s plans to transfer the operations of their employer, the Alberta Mental Health Board, to health regions on April 1.

Good media coverage resulted from the event, which took place on the same day a new Adult Psychiatry Centre was opened on the hospital’s large campus just south of the Ponoka town site.