AUPE Provincial Executive to support strikers April 3 and 4 in Medicine Hat
EDMONTON – The Alberta Union of Provincial Employees will hold the next regular meeting of its Provincial Executive on April 3 and 4 in Medicine Hat to show support for employees of the Valleyview Care Centre who have been on strike since March 13.
All members of the Provincial Executive will join the striking members of AUPE Local 048/ 019 on the picket line on Friday, April 3, at the private, for-profit assisted-living and continuing care facility in Medicine Hat.
The Provincial Executive is made up of elected representatives from each of AUPE’s 32 locals, which represent more than 72,000 members, plus the union’s president, executive secretary-treasurer and four vice-presidents.“We will all be in Medicine Hat and we will spend time on the picket line in addition to conducting the union’s business,” said AUPE President Doug Knight. “We want our members who are on strike to know that their situation matters to all members of AUPE.”
“As should be obvious to AgeCare’s owners by now, we are prepared to do everything we can to assure a fair collective agreement for this group of working women,” Knight said.
“This doesn’t mean that we are going to be unreasonable,” Knight said. “But it does mean that this employer needs to get back to the bargaining table and sign an agreement that is fair and brings these workers more into line with what other health care workers doing similar work in the Medicine Hat area are paid.”
“So it is in everybody’s interests to settle this situation as soon as possible,” he added.
Employees of the Valleyview centre, which is owned by Calgary-based AgeCare Investments Ltd., are, in some cases, paid rates as much as 30 per cent below workers doing comparable work at nearby facilities.
Since the strike began, AgeCare has been operating with the use of strikebreakers bussed in from other company facilities.
Research by AUPE has revealed that Dr. Kabir Jivraj, co-owner of the company that operates the facility and a director of the company that owns it, personally received $690,000 in 2008 as part of a $16 million payout to board members and executives.
AgeCare is co-owned Dr. Jivraj, a Calgary physician and a former Senior Vice-President and Medical Officer of Health for the Calgary Health Region, and Dr. Hasmukh Patel, of Medicine Hat.
For more information, contact:
Doug Knight, President, AUPE, 780-265-6655 (cellular phone)
Dale Perry, Union Representative, AUPE, 780-238-8697 (cellular phone)
David Climenhaga, Communications Director, AUPE, 780-930-3311 or 780-717-2943 (cellular phone)