Provincial government employees’ bargaining representatives to meet this week in Red Deer
RED DEER – Bargaining committee members from each of the nine Alberta Union of Provincial Employees locals that represent more than 20,000 direct employees of the provincial government begin a two-day conference here tomorrow.
Delegates to the conference will set out their local members’ bargaining priorities for the nine-member General Service Bargaining Committee (GSBC), which will conduct the upcoming negotiations for a new agreement for the direct employees of the Alberta government.
“When we sit down at the bargaining table with the government’s negotiators, the economic situation in Alberta will have a profound impact on what our members want and expect,” said AUPE President Doug Knight, who will chair this week’s conference in Red Deer.
“Alberta is in the midst of an economic boom that dwarfs the boom of the 1980s,” Knight said today. “This puts pressure on both parties to reach an agreement that recognizes the economic concerns of AUPE members and that addresses the recruitment and retention challenges faced by the government as an employer.”
Alberta’s economic boom means higher costs for everything from housing and rent to heat, power and food for AUPE’s members, plus an increased workload for the same number of government employees, Knight explained.
At the same time, he said, there are many more private and public sector employment opportunities for government workers, presenting the government with the challenge of finding and keeping employees.
“AUPE’s members directly employed by the government co-operated with the employer’s needs when times were bad not very long ago,” Knight said.
“They took a pay cut that set them significantly behind, suffered layoffs and privatization, and have seen their workloads significantly increase,” he said.
“Now they believe the time has come for the government, their employer, to show them similar consideration in vastly different circumstances,” he said.
“They expect a collective agreement that recognizes their past sacrifices and help them cope with the rising cost of living and the pressures of serving a quickly growing population,” Knight concluded.
In the negotiations with the government, AUPE will operate from the assumption that existing economic conditions will continue for at least five to seven years, said AUPE Staff Negotiator Jim Petrie, who will advise the GSBC throughout the negotiations.
After this week’s bargaining conference, Petrie said, the GSBC will meet several times to determine the specifics of general proposals accepted in Red Deer by members of the locals’ bargaining committees.
He said general areas of concern are expected to include workload issues, retirement benefits, improvements in general contract language and the need for market improvements to deal with specific groups of employees who have fallen behind others who do similar work.
Petrie noted that despite significant population growth, there has been no substantial increase in the numbers of government employees for a decade. “This must be addressed, as Alberta continues to attract new residents to its economic good fortune.”
AUPE will also be looking for remedies to regional disparities in the cost of living that make working throughout northern Alberta extremely expensive, Petrie added.
It will likely be spring before AUPE sets out its position on wages or gives the government formal notice that it intends to commence bargaining, Petrie noted.
AUPE’s Master Agreement and nine Subsidiary Agreements with the provincial government expire on Aug. 31, 2007.
For more information, contact:
Doug Knight, President, AUPE, 780-930-3301 or 780-265-6655 (cellular phone)
Jim Petrie, Union Representative, AUPE, 780-930-3335 or 780-919-4415 (cellular phone)
David Climenhaga, Communications Director, AUPE, 780-930-3311 or 780-717-2943 (cellular phone)