By Guy Smith, AUPE President
Refocus, Rebuild, Re-energize!
That’s what all AUPE Locals have been putting their attention to over the past few months and will continue to do over the next two years. Every Local has engaged in union-wide strategic planning and have determined strategies to meet the needs of their members. The next step, in the coming months, will be to develop specific tactics to put those strategies into action.
The current strategic planning journey started with the Provincial Executive working hard to establish AUPE's overall goals and objectives. We began with guiding statements in the key areas of: Negotiations; Workplace Power; External Relationships; and Inclusion, Diversity, and Equity (IDE). Locals then selected one of these key areas to focus on based on the unique needs of their members.
Although all the key areas are important, most Locals decided to work on the goals and objectives of Workplace Power. Many Local leaders recognized that solidarity and membership engagement at the worksite level are essential to moving us out of the challenges of the past couple of years and building our strength for the future.
Because Alberta's future is filled with uncertainty. We continue to see employers trying to force concessions and rollbacks at the bargaining table. We still feel the threats and realities of job losses through privatization. We continue to watch the provincial government lurch from one crisis to another, resulting in political uncertainty and disruption that will only get more intense before the election scheduled for a year from now.
So, whereas we have little or no control over the challenges of COVID and the political uncertainties that have surrounded us all for the past couple of years, we are now reasserting ourselves to take charge and ensure we refocus, rebuild, and re-energize to secure a stronger future for AUPE members and all Albertans.
In Solidarity,
Guy Smith