Bargaining continues, new dates expected soon.
Your AUPE bargaining committee last met with the Employer on November 12, 2020.
At that meeting, the Employer tabled minimal increases to the Health Care Aides (HCAs) group—who, if the employer had their way, would continue to be paid less than other HCAs in Alberta, even by the expiration of the new collective agreement. The employer also proposed a small lump sum payment to Licensed Practical Nurses (LPNs).
Previously, we received the Employer’s initial “complete” ingoing proposal package, and they were only changing one word—from “assign” to “allocate”—and adding a new sentence for a paid orientation for workers who are away from the worksite for more than 12 months. That’s it.
Not all news is bad, and we managed to agree on most of the non-monetary items.
We continue to push for real gains in the next collective agreement. We’re focused on the key items identified by the membership in our bargaining survey—wages, benefits, better working conditions and a workplace free of favoritism and harassment.
Unfortunately, due to a COVID-19 outbreak at the Walden Heights Site we have not been able to meet with the employer since November. We have requested future dates to continue bargaining, so that we can present a full and fair collective agreement to the membership.
We know that you and your co-workers recently politely expressed frustration with some management decisions—and that the employer responded by releasing communications condemning “bullying” and “harassment,” and referring to you and your co-workers as a “mob” who “swarmed” your managers. To be clear: you have every right to express yourself at work, and that includes raising issues about improvements you would like to see in the workplace. You have the full support of your co-workers and your union.
If you have any concerns, do not hesitate to contact your Membership Services Officer at 1-800-232-7284.
Your bargaining committee is only asking to have our members on par with other AgeCare sites with modest increases once we’ve achieved that goal.
We want to thank you for your continued support. Reach out to your bargaining committee to get involved in the fight to win a fair contract.
Your bargaining committee and AUPE Negotiations team.
Lisa Dray: 403-554-8714 or lmdray@gmail.com
Emily Unggos: unggosemily@yahoo.ca
Maggie Couper: magycouper@gmail.com
Alternates:
Tracy Downey: peachpoje@hotmail.com
Cecile Factura: c_gemini61@yahoo.com
AUPE staff representatives
Christian Tetreault, Negotiator c.tetreault@aupe.org
Madelaine Sommers, Organizer m.sommers@aupe.org or 403-606-8774
Jon Milton, Communications j.milton@aupe.org