AUPE will not renegotiate existing agreements: President Guy Smith
EDMONTON – The Alberta Union of Provincial Employees does not intend to negotiate a wage freeze with Alberta Health Services or any other employer when a collective agreement containing annual pay increases is in place, AUPE President Guy Smith said today.
Governments and their agencies should not try to use the current economic downturn as an excuse to reduce or outsource public services, Smith added.
Smith was responding to a news release late this afternoon by Alberta Health Services saying in part that the province-wide public health agency will seek a “voluntary wage freeze with those unions who have agreements that extend beyond March 31, 2010.”
Two agreements with AUPE, covering more than 12,700 Auxiliary Nursing Care and 26,000 General Support Service employees, extend beyond that date with scheduled pay increases.
“Collective agreements must be honoured like any other legal contract,” Smith said.
“The Supreme Court of Canada made it clear in 2005 that employers, including provincial governments and their agencies, cannot tear up contracts with unions because the terms they have negotiated are no longer convenient to them,” he added.
“AUPE is not interested in allowing its collective agreements to be renegotiated mid-stream,” Smith stated.
“As a broader policy question, it is not acceptable to put the impact of the economic crisis on the backs of Albertans who need government and health services,” he said. “Nor should they freeze wages or make cuts on the backs of front-line public employees who work diligently to provide services to the people of our province.”
Smith said AUPE will consult its locals that represent AHS employees. “I am confident that they will overwhelmingly reject the idea of reopening agreements.”
For more information, contact:
Guy Smith, President, AUPE, 780-930-3301 or 780-265-2294 (cellular phone)
David Climenhaga, Communications Director, AUPE, 780-930-3311 or 780-717-2943 (cellular phone)