AUPE Child and Family Services workers plan Red Deer information picket tomorrow
RED DEER – Child and Family Services workers who are members of the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees plan to hold a lunch-hour information picket tomorrow outside the Red Deer Provincial Building.
The members of AUPE Local 006, which represents Social Services employees directly employed by the provincial government, organized the event to show their concern about understaffing and heavy caseloads, said AUPE President Doug Knight, who will take part in the information picket.
“In addition to understaffing, our members in this area face new responsibilities, shorter timelines for intervention and additional work,” Knight said. “Our Local 006 members are telling us that the situation has become critical for the safety of children, families and staff.
“Will it take a tragedy to fix this situation?”
Knight said AUPE hopes that publicity generated by events like tomorrow’s information picket, as well as formal approaches from the union, will persuade the province to hire additional staff in this important area and make the caseloads faced by employees more manageable so that tragedies can be prevented.
“Recruitment and retention is a problem for all employers during Alberta’s current buoyant economic circumstances,” he noted. “For that reason, the Alberta government needs to pay attention to the concerns of its employees in this important field.”
The information picket will be held in front of the Red Deer Provincial Building, 4920 – 51st Street in Red Deer, from noon until 12:45.
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For more information, contact:
Doug Knight, President, AUPE, 780-930-3301 or 780-265-6655 (cellular phone)
David Climenhaga, Communications Director, AUPE, 780-930-3311 or 780-717-2943 (cellular phone)