AUPE Local 048/013 holding info picket today at Extendicare Cedars Villa
CALGARY – Alberta Union of Provincial Employees Local 048/013 members will hold an information picket outside Extendicare’s Cedars Villa today to protest their employer’s reluctance to move forward in bargaining.
WHO: Long-term care workers and supporters
WHAT: Information picket
WHERE: 3330 – 8TH AVE. S.W. Calgary
WHEN: 10:30 A.M. – 1:00 P.M.
WHY: To protest Extendicare’s bargaining tactics
The picket will begin at 10:30 a.m. at 3330 – 8 Avenue S.W., Calgary, just behind the Shaganappi golf course.
Approximately 230 AUPE members are employed at Extendicare Cedars Villa. They and roughly 330 employees at four other Extendicare worksites in Calgary, Athabasca, Mayerthorpe, and Edmonton 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, AUPE Negotiator, 780-930-3349
Glen Scott, AUPE Vice President, 403-479-4508