New working short and workload survey open now

Understaffed hospitals, backlogged case files, more consecutive days on, a growing population to support and fewer public-sector employees to do it: working Albertans are feeling it across the province. Working short and heavy workloads are pushing the frontlines to exhaustion, burnout and illness.

Albertans need relief - now more than ever - and this government isn’t going to address the problem, but together we can.

Take a load off each other – get out your AUPE member number and fill out the union’s new working short survey at https://www.aupe.org/research.

This survey is separate from the first one AUPE’s working short and workload sub-committee published this summer on Facebook and will be used for a larger study. Your stories are important. Share them today.

It should take members about 15 – 20 minutes to complete. The survey asks you about your experiences with short-staffing (or working short), how it arises on your worksite and in your industry, and how it has affected your life, on and off the job, including your workloads, your safety and your health.

This information will be compiled into resources members can use to influence collective bargaining decisions and fight for more worker-friendly legislation.

Why now?
The UCP are on a job-killing spree. On Nov. 29, along with Alberta Health Service (AHS), they informed AUPE they’ll be laying off 5,900 union positions in direct government services, hospital and care centre support services, and nursing care.

That’s on top of the 100-AUPE-member layoff at the University of Calgary, the 54-AUPE-member layoff at Alberta Innovates, and the loss of the firefighting rappel program.
Registered Nurses and k-12 teachers are suffering a similar fate, and all working people are going to feel it. As it stands Albertans are waiting for surgeries, classrooms are packed and the line-up for affordable housing is around the block.

Alberta is growing, people’s needs are mounting and the pressure to keep up is landing on you. This is how critical mistakes happen. This is how we burnout. And this isn’t how it has to be.

Members know from frontline experience what an Alberta that prioritizes workers and their neighbours could look like. Share your stories and help define working short and workload issues in Alberta, so we can tackle them together and stop costly and dangerous decisions the UCP and other bosses are making on your worksites.