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AHS cancels bargaining again! Outrageous disrespect for GSS workers

Bargaining Update: AHS General Support Services, Locals: 054, 056, 057, 058, 095, and Lamont Health Care Centre GSS

Jun 08, 2021

AHS cancels bargaining again! More outrageous disrespect for GSS workers

Alberta Health Services had the audacity to once again cancel our bargaining meetings at the last minute.

AHS General Support Services AUPE members decided to get back to the bargaining table earlier this year. AHS has now cancelled our new bargaining meetings for the second time. For AHS to do so twice, after the Alberta Labour Board accepted our complaint when they did so the first time, is unacceptable and insulting.

AHS claims they won’t commit to bargaining because they are focusing their resources on the pandemic. But they seem to have enough resources for meetings regarding how many hundreds of us they want to put out of a job!

AHS is moving forward with cuts and privatization to hospital laundry and ancillary retail food services. With this, AHS will put hundreds of GSS members out of work. This is all part of AHS’s plan to implement the Ernst & Young report recommendations, a process Health Minister Shandro announced would mean sending 11,000 front-line staff to the unemployment line.

AHS can't tell us they don’t have time for bargaining while they apparently have time to cut our jobs!

AHS GSS members across the province told us they were tired of uncertainty, of the back and forth of whether we would have job security or get back to work on a new collective agreement. Your negotiating team has asked the employer to come to the bargaining table over and over again. We’re working to get back to bargaining so we can secure a deal for General Support Services workers, the front-line staff who have sacrificed so much throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

For AHS and the politicians pulling their strings to call us health care heroes, only to cut our jobs and treat collective bargaining as an annoyance, is disgraceful. The next time you hear them call us “heroes,” remember how they treated us when they’ve needed us the most.

Premier Kenney talks a big game about negotiating in good faith with the federal government. His lackeys must have missed his own memo, because Health Minister Shandro is clearly not asking AHS to negotiate in good faith with us.

Your AUPE negotiating team has added these disrespectful cancellations to our original complaint with the Alberta Labour Relations Board. We will let you know as soon as there is news from the Labour Board or if AHS agrees to get back to bargaining.

AHS GSS Negotiating Team

Local 054

Julie Woodford - juliew.chp006@gmail.com

Charity Hill (A) - charity.johanson@gmail.com

Local 056

Tammy Lanktree – local56.bargaining@gmail.com

Local 057

Darren Graham - chairlocal057@aupe.ca

Wendy Kicia (A) - wendykicia@hotmail.com

Local 058

Anton Schindler - waterdude69@gmail.com

Dave Ibach (A) - d1322j@gmail.com