AUPE members vote to reject mediator’s recommendation in Cap Care/St. Joseph’s ANC/LPN negotiations
EDMONTON – Auxiliary nursing care members of the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees who work at several Capital Care Group long-term care facilities and Licensed Practical Nurses who work at St. Joseph’s Auxiliary Hospital have voted to reject a mediator’s recommended settlement.
“Our members were insulted by this mediator’s recommended settlement and they have made their feelings clear with this vote of rejection,” said AUPE Staff Negotiator Terry Agoto, who led the union bargaining committee.
“Other employers, such as St. Michael’s Hospital in Edmonton, have agreed to larger pay increases for workers doing the same work in a similar facility,” Agoto said.
The AUPE bargaining committee for the employees of the Edmonton-area care facilities will now meet and consider the appropriate next steps, Agoto said. “We will be considering all of our possible options for resolving this situation in a way satisfactory to our members.”
The employees are members of AUPE Local 049, all Capital Care auxiliary nursing care (ANC) employees, and Local 047/015, St. Joseph’s Licensed Practical Nurses (LPNs) only.
Provincially appointed mediator Michael Necula on April 15 recommended terms of a settlement with AUPE for the ANC employees at Capital Care’s Strathcona, Mewburn, Grandview, Dickinsfield and Lynwood care centres, and for LPNs only at the Norwood Care Centre and at St. Joseph’s.
He recommended pay increases of three per cent in each year of a three-year agreement, Agoto said.
In late February, negotiators for both AUPE and for the Capital Care/St. Joseph’s employer group jointly requested the assistance of the mediator to reach a collective agreement.
Worksite information meetings were held for members on May 20, 24 and 25, Agoto added. “At those meetings, the bargaining committee recommended that the agreement be rejected.”
The members voted on May 27, with the ballots counted well into the evening.
Mediation meetings took place on March 11, 15 and 16 and April 12. All non-monetary items and some monetary items, however, were signed off during earlier bargaining sessions before the mediator became involved in the process.
AUPE represents approximately 1,000 employees at six Capital Care Group worksites and at St. Joseph’s Auxiliary Hospital, all long-term care facilities located in the Edmonton area, in this round of bargaining.