AUPE Local 047/023 to hold info picket April 6 at Extendicare Holyrood
EDMONTON – Alberta Union of Provincial Employees Local 047/023 members will hold an information picket outside Extendicare’s Holyrood nursing home on Tuesday, April 6 to protest their employer’s reluctance to move forward in bargaining.
The picket will take place at 8008 – 95 Avenue, Edmonton, beginning at 10:30 a.m. and ending at 1:00 p.m.
Approximately 80 AUPE members are employed at Extendicare’s Holyrood long-term care facility. They and roughly 480 AUPE members employed at four other Extendicare worksites in Calgary, Athabasca and Mayerthorpe have become frustrated after bargaining for more than a year without reaching a new collective agreement.
“The simple goal of these Extendicare employees is a fair collective agreement that gives them similar wages and benefits that workers at similar long term care and assisted living homes,” said AUPE staff negotiator John Wevers.
AUPE has filed for mediation with Extendicare to try and resolve the impasse.
Extendicare is one of the largest seniors’ care providers in North America, with 258 facilities in Canada and the United States.
In a year-end press release for its 2009 financial year Extendicare reported $265.7 million in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization – a 31.7 per cent increase compared with 2008.
The company said its “Canadian operations benefited from funding increases in Ontario and Alberta” in 2009.
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For more information:
John Wevers, Negotiator, AUPE – 780-930-3349 or 780-238-4767 (cellular)
Philipia Bates Renouf, Vice President, AUPE – 780-719-2696 (cellular)