Greetings fellow AUPE members, and welcome to the annual printed edition of AUPE's Direct Impact magazine. In addition to this issue, hopefully, you've been following your union news in the monthly online editions of this publication. The best way to access ongoing editions is to establish a MyAUPE account on our website: www.aupe.org. There you can set up a unique account, update your personal contact data, find useful information as a member, and stay up to date, aware and informed.
Being aware and informed, in a timely manner, is important at any time, but it will be crucial in the near future when a vast majority of AUPE members are in collective bargaining to make improvements in wages, job security, working conditions, and other key areas of the many collective agreements that will be negotiated starting in early 2024.
Your elected negotiating teams, made up of members just like you, will need your support in what is likely going to be very challenging rounds of bargaining. We seek the increases and working conditions you need and deserve, but it is very possible your employers will seek at least status quo or maybe even concessions and rollbacks. We will all have to work hard to prepare for what could be potentially contentious negotiations.
So, AUPE is preparing to bargain like never before. Your negotiating teams and our professional staff will be attending bargaining conferences scheduled for the fall. These conferences will focus on our overall goals, help identify specific demands, emphasize the need for mass member engagement, build the awareness and confidence of the negotiating teams, and set the overall tone for when we enter negotiations. Approximately 200 elected negotiating team activists will be involved in these conferences which is unprecedented in size and scope. Furthermore, this translates into approximately 82,000 members in bargaining as early as January 2024.
As AUPE members dedicated to supporting Albertans' health, well-being, and security in every part of the province, you have been the backbone of society through numerous challenges. These upcoming rounds of bargaining offers us the unique opportunity, if we are prepared to seize it, to make significant gains across the board. All our members, regardless of where and who they work for, want the same things for themselves, their families and their comnunities: decent pay, employment security, support, respect, safety, and the ability to do what they do best - professionally provide the services Albertans need.
In addition to the bargaining conferences and training courses, it is certain that bargain ing will be on everyone's minds at AUPE's annual Convention at the end of October. Elected delegates from across the province will come together, debate crucial matters, make decisions, and elect the next Execu tive Committee. But most importantly, these activists and leaders will continue to build the level of strength and solidarity that will be crucial in overcoming the massive challenges and seizing the unprecedented opportunities that lay ahead.
In Solidarity,
Guy Smith,
AUPE President
