AUPE members at two Lethbridge assisted living facilities ratify first agreement
LETHBRIDGE – Alberta Union of Provincial Employees members who work at two Good Samaritan Society continuing-care facilities in Lethbridge have ratified a first collective agreement that includes pay increases between 4 and 12 per cent.
Most of the approximately 170 employees of the Good Sam West Highlands and Park Meadows facilities, members of AUPE Local 048/020, will see a pay increase of at least 6 per cent, said AUPE Staff Negotiator Dale Perry.
Votes by members of the local were counted late Friday at the AUPE’s Southern Regional Office in Lethbridge.
The employees at the two worksites, who were previously without union representation, voted to join AUPE in August 2005, said Perry, who headed the union’s bargaining committee in this round of negotiations.
“As a result of joining AUPE and participating in the collective bargaining process, they were able to get an agreement that restored to them many monetary items that were taken away by this employer in May, 2005,” Perry said.
The first contract will run for only nine months, expiring at the end of June in order to bring these members’ agreement into line with other continuing-care facility collective agreements between AUPE and the Good Samaritan Society, Perry said. AUPE represents approximately 1,200 Good Sam employees at 35 worksites province-wide.
In addition to the pay increase, Perry added, this first agreement includes numerous other improvements. Among them:
- Shift premium pay of $1.75 per hour for shifts starting after 3 p.m.
- Weekend premium pay of $1.75 per hour for shifts starting after 3 p.m. Friday.
- Creation of a formal grievance procedure to help employees resolve disputes with the employer.
- Better sick leave, vacation, pension, education allowance, and health benefits provisions.
“This agreement improves many aspects of these employees’ working relationship with their employer in ways that would not have been possible without union representation,” Perry concluded.
For more information, contact:
Dale Perry, Union Representative, AUPE, Southern Alberta Regional Office (Lethbridge), 403- 329-1294 or 403-308-4549 (cellular phone)
David Climenhaga, Communications Director, AUPE, 780-930-3311 or 780-717-2943 (cellular phone)