Threats by premier contradict government claims cost cutting won’t hurt taxpayers
EDMONTON – Continued threats by Premier Ed Stelmach to lay off government employees if their union won’t agree to concessions completely contradict his claims provincial cost cutting will have no impact on Albertans, says the president of the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees.
The premier made the threat again in a news story published this morning by the Edmonton Sun newspaper.
The premier’s so-called austerity measures to balance the budget in a hurry have no economic benefit and are already having a serious impact on government services that Albertans need, said AUPE President Guy Smith.
“The number of direct employees of the provincial government is significantly lower than it was in the early 1990s and almost exactly the same as in 1996, a dozen years ago,” said Smith.
“In the same period, the population of Alberta has grown steadily and at times dramatically,” said Smith. “It’s a simple matter of arithmetic that Albertans are already seeing a real negative impact on government and health services.”
Despite the recession, Statistics Canada reports that Alberta continues to have the highest overall year-over-year growth rate among all provinces.
In 1992, when Alberta had a population of approximately 2.5 million, approximately 32,000 direct government employees were represented by AUPE.
In 1996, with a provincial population of 3.3 million, 23,382 AUPE members were employed directly by the province.
Today, after a period of severe cuts that seriously impacted government services in 1997 and 1998 and some subsequent modest growth, there are 23,339 AUPE members directly employed by the province, which now has a population of 3.7 million.
“The quality and availability of programs Albertans count on has already been hurt, and it is completely absurd for the premier to claim that further cuts won’t have a noticeable impact on Albertans,” Smith said. “Obviously they will.”
“Our members have been pushed to the limit and they are angry and frustrated,” he said. “The need for the programs and services they provide is increasing and their ability to do their jobs is stretched to its limit.”
In addition to rising caseloads as a result of population growth, Smith noted, changes in legislation and new more complex paperwork requirements have made the work harder and more time consuming.
“Our members not only have increasing caseloads, they work in more crowded facilities, they’re dealing with more paperwork, they face impossible legislative demands and as a result they’re suffering more stress and burnout,” he said.
If the government wants to continue with trimming jobs in the public service, Smith said, it should use the tools at its disposal in AUPE’s existing collective agreement, such as the Separation Payment for Restructuring Program, Smith said.
“This is a voluntary program employees must apply for,” he explained. “We believe that if government employees do apply, most of them will be turned down because government managers realize how stretched the public service really is.”
As for asking government employees to accept a wage freeze, the proper time for the government to make such a request is in collective bargaining for a new agreement, which is expected to begin next summer. There are no further wage increases scheduled in the current collective agreement for government employees.
General Support Service and Auxiliary Nursing Care employees of Alberta Health Services have legally binding contracts with a scheduled pay increase in April, he noted.
“We expect the government to abide by the terms of its agreements,” Smith said.“The government can put its position forward when that agreement expires on Aug. 31, 2010, and we’ll put ours on the table at the same time,” he concluded.
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For more information, contact:
Guy Smith, President, AUPE, 7870-930-3301 or 780-265-2294 (cellular phone)
David Climenhaga, Communications Director, AUPE, 780-930-3311 or 780-717-2943 (cellular phone)