A tentative three-year agreement between the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees (AUPE) and Alberta Health Services (AHS) sees an annual three per cent increase in wages for general support services workers.
The agreement is retroactive to April 1, 2011 and affects roughly 22,000 workers in the province responsible for things like housekeeping, food services and clerical duties. The agreement was reached March 7 with details released Tuesday by AUPE.
“I’m pleased with this. Three per cent per year is a lot better than what they had originally offered us,” said Melanie Thompson, chair of general support services in Chapter 4 of Local 54. “Three per cent each year for the next three years is good and I think our members will be pleased with it.”
Local 54 represents 387 general support services staff in the St. Albert, Morinville and Gibbons area, which covers the Sturgeon Hospital, Morinville Clinic and several other health facilities.
“This is an important deal for the largest single health care bargaining unit in Alberta. They are essential to safe, quality health care in our province,” Guy Smith, president of AUPE, said in a news release. “They work hard and this agreement’s aim is to recognize the essential roles they perform in the delivery of health care to Albertans.”
This is the first negotiated contract between general support services employees and AHS since the provincial merger of health services in 2009.
Thompson said she expects the agreement to go to a vote in mid-April and expects a majority of workers to vote in favour of acceptance.
Members of Chapter 4 were originally seeking a five per cent increase each year, although Thompson said that was an overshot.
“We were going for higher, which you always do,” she said. “You always look for more.”
The tentative agreement also includes increased shift and weekend premium rates, a $600 flexible health spending account in January 2013 and resolution of various definitions and classification disputes.
In January 95 per cent of general support services workers rejected a mediator’s contract recommendations of a two per cent increase for both 2011 and 2012 and a cost of living increase for 2013.
This pushed AHS back to the bargaining table and AUPE president Guy Smith said the counter offer was less than the mediator’s contract recommendation — this offer included a lump sum payment for 2011, a two per cent increase for 2012 and a cost of living increase for 2012.
In early February, AUPE walked away from the mediated negotiations with AHS prompting many general support services workers to walk off the job on a wildcat strike.
“I believe after Feb. 12, 2012 after the wildcat was held, our members showed that we feel strong about a fair collective agreement,” Thompson said, adding more than 100 members of Chapter 4 participated in the strike.
Rather than picketing at the various clinics and hospitals in the jurisdiction, members joined a larger group at the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Edmonton.
“I think the wildcat has helped us because it did bring notice to Alberta Health Services that we were going to stand strong,” she said.
The Alberta Labour Relations Code prohibits workers of a health authority from striking, although workers participating in the wildcat walkout did not face disciplinary action.
The Royal Alexandra Hospital cancelled 68 elective surgeries as a result of the strike, but there were no similar effects reported at the Sturgeon Hospital, Thompson said.
AUPE is the largest union in the province, with close to 80,000 members, half of which work in the health care sector.
