This is the fourth agreement you’ve achieved since organizing. Every round of negotiations in that time has unfortunately been an uphill battle but also a testament to your solidarity.
This is the first time we’ve come to a tentative agreement without first taking a strike vote, which no staff should have to resort to in the process of trying to better their work and the services they provide to the public. This is a big achievement and reflective of the employer’s more cooperative approach to bargaining.
The agreement you and the employer will vote on includes a number of workplace improvements, including new Pay Equity provisions, a process for addressing Workload Issues, clearer Grievance Procedure language, Not Contracting Out for the life of the agreement and better Respectful Workplace/No Discrimination/No Harassment protections.
The salary proposals match those of the Alberta Health Services (AHS) agreements: Zeros in 2017 and 2018 and a wage reopener in 2019.
We negotiated a $500 increase to our dental benefits; increased pay for Named Holidays, including improved provisions for Casual and Part Time workers; as well as overtime pay for Named Holidays at 2.5 times your basic rate of pay, and three times for Christmas.
These language changes and others will go a long way in creating more internal equality on our worksite and external equality with health care professionals across the province doing work similar to yours. Thank you for standing with each other to make this kind of progress possible.
If you have any questions, please contact your bargaining team.
EDITH CAVELL BARGAINING TEAM MEMBERS:
Jan Busch janbusch@ymail.com
Shari Chatters chatter3@telus.net
Amber Noel ambernoel2002@yahoo.ca
AUPE RESOURCE STAFF:
Chris Dickson, Negotiator
c.dickson@aupe.org
Michelle Szalynski, Organizing
403-634-8262 or m.szalynski@aupe.org
Celia Shea, Communications
780-720-8122 or c.shea@aupe.org