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Alberta nursing-care staff will walk off the job this weekend, forcing the cancellation of some elective surgeries, after the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees (AUPE) served strike notice early Wednesday.
“This is a critical moment for us and we exhausted every path available before arriving at this one,” AUPE president Sandra Azocar said Wednesday morning after talks broke down with the employer, Alberta Health Services (AHS).
The union said it served strike notice at 7:55 a.m. Wednesday, stating that mediation was not successful and the union did not receive recommendations from the mediator.
Azocar said elective surgeries will start being cancelled as workers hit the picket line as of 8:30 a.m. this Saturday.
AUPE was not able to confirm how many elective surgeries would be cancelled and CBC has requested more information from AHS on how many surgeries would be impacted.
“After almost 20 months of bargaining, the employer had fallen short — far short — of delivering what is needed and what is deserved,” Azocar said.
The strike notice comes after it was announced earlier this month that 98 per cent of staff represented by the union had voted in favour of strike action.
AUPE said earlier this month that talks with AHS and the four organizations that replaced the former provincial health authority, broke down in April.
The union has about 16,000 members, who are mostly licensed practical nurses (LPNs) and health-care aides.
There remains about a nine per cent difference in negotiated wages for union members like LPNs and health-care aides, according to Kate Robinson, AUPE’s lead negotiator.
“The market adjustment proposed for health-care aides was two per cent and the market adjustment proposed for LPNs is at 9.5 per cent,” Robinson said.
“That sounds like a lot, but the problem with that is that it does not close the gap between [registered nurses (RNs)] and LPNs.”
The wage gap prior to the most recent round of bargaining was $15 an hour, Robinson said.
The proposal tabled by the employer increases that gap to $20 an hour, she said.
“Their proposal does not place Alberta LPNs or Alberta health-care aides in the number one spot in Canada the way that it does for the RNs,” Robinson said.
“With a 12 per cent vacancy rate, it’s time to fix the issues that are leading to the recruitment and retention issues that Alberta is experiencing.”
Doing equal work, being paid less
Jennifer Power, with AUPE’s northern zone nursing care, said the situation for nurses has been dire.
“The feeling amongst many co-workers is that we are doing the equal work of our colleagues but receiving significantly less,” Power said.
“We are aware of colleagues that are going to food banks and struggling to make it from paycheque to paycheque.”
Around 78 per cent of the 16,000 union members are designated as essential workers, Robinson said. “And so we’ll be going into work to continue providing services to Albertans and the rest will be out on the picket lines.”
CBC has requested comment from the Treasury Board and finance ministry about the state of negotiations.
When the union announced results of its strike vote on Nov. 5, Finance Minister Nate Horner, said in a news release that he was disappointed and noted the government was offering a 12 per cent wage increase over four years.
“This is a fair, competitive deal, in line with more than 87 other negotiated settlements across the public sector,” Horner said.
Azocar said the union remains hopeful a settlement can be reached.
“We remain committed to reaching a fair agreement, but make no mistake, our members will not back down from what is right, what is just and what is necessary,” Azocar said.
