9,000 AUPE auxiliary nursing care members ratify agreement with eight health regions
EDMONTON – Auxiliary nursing care employees of eight Alberta health regions represented by the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees have voted to accept a new four-year collective agreement recommended last month by a provincially appointed mediator.
“This Multi-Employer ANC Agreement is the result of one of most complex rounds of bargaining and mediation AUPE has been involved in,” AUPE Staff Negotiator Jim Petrie said today. “We have been working on this agreement for almost two years.
“Our members have now accepted the recommendation of their bargaining committee and said yes to this mediated settlement, and we await and anticipate the same decision soon from their employers,” said Petrie, who led the union’s bargaining team.
Under Alberta labour laws, the eight health regions have 14 days from today to ratify the agreement.
Approximately 9,000 AUPE members had the opportunity to vote by mail or at worksite membership meetings at locations throughout Alberta in January and February. Ballots were counted this morning at AUPE Headquarters in Edmonton.
The agreement includes pay increases of three per cent in each of its four years. The term of the agreement runs from April 1, 2004, to April 1. 2008.
Mediator David Jones presented his recommended terms of settlement to AUPE and the employer’s negotiating representative on Jan. 5, 2006. Copies were made available to all affected members by the union.
“AUPE worked very hard for a long time to overcome the obstacles to a fair agreement that were put in its way by the Bill 27 process,” Petrie said.
“We began these negotiations almost two years ago with the impending expiry of the old Multi-Employer ANC Agreement and passage by the Alberta Legislature of Bill 27, which required the collective agreements covering ANC employees of all Alberta health regions to be consolidated from 17 into a single agreement for each region,” he said.
“Negotiations were difficult because as well as bargaining normal amendments to the agreement, we had to consolidate all the agreements in a way that attempted to recognize the benefits won over many years by workers at many worksites,” Petrie said.
“We bargained for 46 days and we were in mediation for 23 days over many months,” he said. “On Jan. 5, we finally had an agreement we could recommend to our members.”
The agreement will affect all ANC employees of all Alberta health regions except the Calgary Health Region, which is conducting separate negotiations with AUPE.
Auxiliary nursing care employees include, among others, Licensed Practical Nurses, Nursing Attendants, Recreational Therapy Attendants and Operating Room Technicians.
For more information, contact:
Dan MacLennan, President, AUPE, 780-930-3301 or 780-232-8392 (cellular phone)
Jim Petrie, Union Representative, AUPE, 780-930-3335 or 780-919-4415 (cellular phone)
David Climenhaga, Communications Director, AUPE, 780-930-3311 or 780-717-2943 (cellular phone)
Photo: Members of the Provincial ANC Bargaining Team were busy counting ratification vote ballots for a mediator’s proposed settlement Feb. 24. Members voted to accept a new four-year collective agreement.