Covenant Health: Essential Services Agreement update

Your essential services team is working hard to finish our Essential Services Agreement (ESA) with Covenant Health.  

There are two major parts of the ESA to complete. There is Part A, which is about scheduling shifts during a strike, and Part B, which determines who is an essential services worker.

We met with Covenant on April 9 and May 22 to discuss Part B and are currently meeting with an Umpire (May 27, 28, and 30) to discuss Part A.

Part A – Scheduling shifts during a strike

Part A of the ESA outlines the rules the Union, AUPE members, and the employer must follow if there is a strike or lockout.

Your team wants to ensure Covenant Health remains responsible for scheduling shifts during a strike or lockout, especially considering the challenges we are already facing while working short (working without enough staff).

Covenant, however, insists that AUPE schedule designated essential services workers—even if Covenant locks us out. This is an attempt to undermine how effective our strike can be, and we are fighting against it.

In April, your ESA team asked your Local and Chapter executives to help prepare for our meetings with the Umpire (who is like a mediator, but with authority to make decisions about our ESA).

Following this request, AUPE members tracked several Covenant Health sites to find out when specific units were working short. We will share the results with the Umpire to help make our case stronger.

Part B – Who is essential and who’s not

Part B of the ESA decides which job classifications, and how many workers in each classification, are essential during a strike or lockout. These workers will continue working during a strike or lockout to ensure the public’s health and safety.

Your team and Covenant Health have agreed to approximately 85% of the 221 staffing plans for Nursing Care and General Support Services workers. At our meetings on April 9 and May 22, Covenant’s operational managers answered our questions about issues affecting some of these plans. Now, your team is working on its response. We have not yet set the date for our next meeting for Part B.  

Overall

We are frustrated that Covenant has not addressed our scheduling concerns within the ESA. Without an active ESA, we do not have the right to strike and fight for a better collective agreement. Your team continues to fight for what we deserve and appreciates your trust and solidarity.

For more information

For more information on Essential Services or the ESA, please refer to AUPE’s website:  

https://www.aupe.org/essentialservices  

https://www.aupe.org/member-resources/essential-services/essential-services-general-faq  

If you have questions

If you have specific questions related to the Covenant Health ESA, please reach out to [email protected] or your ESA negotiator, Andrea Balon, by email at [email protected].