Your General Support Services (GSS) and Nursing Care (NC) teams met on February 21 to prepare for our next bargaining meeting with Venta Care, which is tentatively scheduled for April 12. We have asked the employer if GSS and NC can have meetings at the same time so we can speed up bargaining. We are waiting to hear their reply.
AUPE negotiator Kate Robinson has been assigned to support us with negotiations. Bringing both negotiating teams together to meet with Kate was a crucial step to move forward with bargaining.
Your negotiating teams also created our monetary proposals, which we will share with the employer at our next meeting.
Essential Services Agreements
We have completed an essential services agreement (ESA) for nursing care members at Venta Care. However, the levels of Employees who were determined to be “essential to life, health, or safety” if there was a lockout by the Employer or a strike by the Union were simply too high, and as a result, the Alberta Labour Relations Board has determined that the nursing care members do not have the right to strike, and the Employer cannot lock you out if negotiations break down. That means if we can’t get a deal through collective bargaining, we have the right to go to binding arbitration (where a neutral third party decides the outcome) to finalize our agreement. We are not yet at this point, but we wanted to make you aware of it.
We have tried to start the process for creating an ESA for general support services members, but we are still waiting for Venta Care to respond.
Your teams will share another bargaining update after our March 29 meeting.
Please contact a member of your negotiating team if you have any questions. Make sure you receive the latest bargaining updates and union news by signing up at www.aupe.org/update-info
GSS NEGOTIATING TEAM
Donna Moynes
domoynes@telus.net
Maria Yadao
ighie0207@yahoo.com
Leena Ch’Ng-Mcleod (Alternate)
lchng955@mynorquest.ca
NC NEGOTIATING TEAM
Karina Acorda
karinajean_kj@yahoo.ca
Evelina Falsetti
evelinaf355@gmail.com
AUPE RESOURCE STAFF
Kate Robinson, Negotiator
k.robinson@aupe.org
Christine Yargeau-Becker, Organizer
c.yargeau-becker@aupe.org
Alexander Delorme, Communications
a.delorme@aupe.org