Extendicare tables –4% wage rollback as bargaining begins again
This week, your AUPE Negotiating Team met with Extendicare for the first time since December 2019, before the pandemic put negotiations on hold. We had hoped and that the employer would recognize all of our hard work during the COVID-19 pandemic with a fair and improved collective agreement.
Instead, Extendicare has decided to treat us like health-care zeroes rather than health-care heroes.
In fact, zeroes would be an improvement over the –4% wage rollback Extendicare wants us to take!
Extendicare seems to be following Alberta Health Services’ lead with this –4% rollback. They are proposing a four-year collective agreement with zero wage increases for 2018, 2019, 2020, and finally the –4% for 2021.
A –4% rollback would be devastating. All Albertans are hurting because of the economic recession and the pandemic. It doesn’t make any sense to punish us further, especially those of us who are single parents or whose spouses are struggling to find work themselves.
It makes even less sense when you consider Extendicare has the money to keep paying its shareholders tens of millions of dollars! They even used COVID money from the Canadian government to pay their dividends.
When you look at it all, Extendicare’s -4% rollback is a slap in the face.
More horrible proposals
Extendicare’s horrible package of proposals don’t stop there.
Extendicare only wants to pay us 85% of our hourly wage when we take sick time.
They want to reduce their contributions to our Group Benefits Plan:
- Reduce Extended Health contribution from 75% to 50%
- Introduce per visit cap of $50
- Reduce Dental contribution from 75% to 50%
- Reduce our Health Spending Account to $200 per year
Extendicare also wants to reduce contributions to our RRSPs.
Your AUPE Negotiating Team will not agree to these rollbacks. We all work far too hard and deserve so much more than these insulting proposals. We will continue working hard to secure a fair deal at the bargaining table.
Stay tuned for further updates from your Negotiating Team, including information on action we can take to show we reject Extendicare’s proposals.
Please contact a member of your team or AUPE Resource Staff members if you have any questions.
Extendicare Negotiating Team
Katie Seaward (Athabasca) - thevampirediaries1@live.ca or 780-676-0884
Kathy Findlater (Cedars Villa) - kathyfindlater96@gmail.com 403-606-5044 (c) or 403-271-8740 (h)
Natasha Ng (Eaux Claires) - tashjee@hotmail.com or 780-938-1404
Theresa Lawrence (Fairmont) - t_crail@hotmail.com or 403-308-3345
Judith Cseresnyes (Holyrood) - judysc1966@gmail.com or 780-945-7647
Paul McDowell (Mayerthorpe) - mcdowellpaul57@gmail.com or 780-268-4110
Mike Peterson (Michener Hill) - mike5782@telus.net or 587-877-6587
AUPE Resource Staff
Jason Rattray, Negotiator - j.rattray@aupe.org
Jaime Urbina, Organizer - j.urbina@aupe.org
Margaret Kapuwa, Organizer – m.kapuwa@aupe.org
Alexander Delorme, Communications - a.delorme@aupe.org