AUPE and Good Sam reach tentative agreement for Group Homes & Options employees
EDMONTON – Alberta Union of Provincial Employees negotiators yesterday reached a tentative agreement with the Good Samaritan Society on behalf of more than 180 employees at 21 Group Homes and Options worksites.
The two-year agreement is significantly improved from the employer’s last offer and the AUPE Local 047/011 Bargaining Committee is recommending that members ratify it in voting scheduled to take place on Thursday, Aug. 3, 2006, said union Staff Negotiator Val Luvaha.
Voting by members, who work throughout the Edmonton area, will be held from 8:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. at AUPE Headquarters, 10451, 170th Street N.W., in Edmonton.
AUPE was able to reach an acceptable agreement with the employer, which initially took a hard line in this round of negotiations, because of the strength and solidarity shown by members of this bargaining unit, said Luvaha, who led the union bargaining team.
On July 6, the employees overwhelmingly rejected a contract their employer had forced them to vote on.
“Good Sam used a provision in Alberta labour law that allowed them, once during negotiations, to force employees to vote on a contract that has been rejected by the union bargaining committee,” Luvaha explained.
“The turnout on the day we voted was very high, and our members said ‘No’ very clearly to the sub-standard contract the employer had put forward,” she said. “By backing their bargaining team so strongly, they gave us the mandate that made it possible for us to reach an acceptable agreement today.
“Our members should be very proud of the courageous stand they took, which clearly paid dividends for them in the form of a vastly improved offer,” she added.
Under the tentative agreement, Group Homes and Options employees will receive a 7-per-cent lump-sum payment in the first year of the agreement and a 3-per-cent on-the-grid pay increase in the second year. The term of the agreement is July 1, 2005, to June 30, 2007.
Luvaha said the agreement also includes such improvements as an increase in mileage payments for employees who use their cars on the job to 39 cents per kilometre, more generous overtime pay provisions and a shorter probationary period for new employees.
In addition, Luvaha said, the employer dropped changes it had sought to sick-leave and health-benefit provisions in the current contract that would have amounted to take-aways for the employees.
“We were able to retain the current contract language in those areas, which is what our members wanted,” she said.
Local 047/011 members care for dependent adults at the 21 Good Sam Group Homes and Options facilities scattered throughout the Edmonton area.
For more information, please contact:
Val Luvaha, Union Representative, Negotiations, 930-3355
John Wevers, Union Representative, Servicing, 414-7970
Janine Pidruchney, Bargaining Committee Member, 437-4219
Neil Redman, Bargaining Committee Member, 439-3747
Aaron Truman, Bargaining Committee Member, 504-0125