AUPE’s Occupational Health & Safety Committee has launched a campaign: Working Short – the crisis that costs us all! By now, you may have seen stickers that members are wearing on worksites across sectors and regions. You may also be aware that we recently conducted a survey of our members on the issue of working short.
We look forward to sharing the results of the survey in the coming days (we received over 4,000 responses and are still parsing the data). In the meantime, our Committee has also been working on organizing rallies on International Workers’ Day, May 1st, to further shine a light on this issue.
Over the past several years, we’ve heard it all. And we know that when our members are suffering at work, Albertans are suffering from the lack of quality services that we want to deliver. While you deal with excessive workloads and burnout because of staff shortages, you’ve been faced with indifference from your employers and subsequent provincial governments.
From unsustainable client/staffing ratios in Social Services or Educational Assistants trying to cope with ever-increasing demands with fewer resources to Health Care Workers on the front lines trying to cope with expanding scope and employers stretching you to the limit – the list is actually almost endless - we hear you and we’re listening. We hope these rallies will be a catalyst for our members and all workers to make the issue of working short front and centre in the upcoming election campaign (this issue transcends partisanship) and beyond.
We hope you can join us (during non-work time, of course) at one of the four locations we will be gathering. Bring your signs, flags, banners, and friends/co-workers.
We will be holding rallies as follows:
Monday, May 1, 2023
11:30 AM – 1:00 PM
- Edmonton: Queen Elizabeth II Building (north of the Legislature)
- Red Deer: Red Deer Regional Hospital , 3942 50A Ave
- Calgary: Foothills Medical Centre, 1403 29 St NW
- Lethbridge: Provincial Building, 200 5 Ave S
You can download a poster for this event here and we’d appreciate you sharing it widely. We look forward to seeing you on May 1st.
In solidarity,
AUPE Occupational Health and Safety Committee
Bonnie Gostola, Committee Chairperson
Brenda Lussier, Local 043
Dorinda Ainscough, Local 012
Juanita Cozicar, Local 056
Karie Burchill, Local 006
Paulette Harrison, Local 052
Wally Howe, Local 095
Sandra Mill, Local 001
Diana Griffith, Staff Advisor
Ghanem AlAtasi, Staff Admin