Alberta Nurses' Province-Wide Day of Action
Standing Up to Government Wrecking of Health Care
- Peggy Morton -
United Nurses of Alberta (UNA) is holding a province-wide Day of Action on August 11 under the banner Forward Not Back! UNA
will be joined by health care workers represented by the Alberta Union
of Provincial Employees (AUPE) and the Canadian Union of Public
Employees (CUPE).
"I think you would be hard-pressed to find an Albertan who doesn't
respect the work that nurses and health-care workers have done during
the pandemic, and always. We want to make sure the public knows how
much disrespect is being shown to us by the UCP government," UNA Second
Vice-President Cam Westhead said during an
information picket held at the Sturgeon Hospital in St. Albert on July
26.
"We're
being fed a narrative that it is us, the frontline heroes, that need to
pay for bad government policy and government debt, like we haven't paid
already with time away from our families, fear of catching COVID, and
spreading COVID in the early months, moral injury, and burning out,"
UNA Local 85 President Orissa Shima told CTV
News Edmonton. "What is a thank you when you're telling us we're worth
less?" she asked. "It's a slap in the face, it's a punch in the gut,
after all we've been through and given during this pandemic," Shima
said.
"We need to recruit and retain nurses and you're not going to do
that by telling us we're worth less. We need to recognize that there's
a shortage. We need more nurses, not less, and we can't afford to drive
nurses out of the province," Shima said.
UNA returned to the "negotiating table" after a 16-month pause, to
find that the employers have been directed by the government to step up
their attacks on registered nurses and on other health care workers as
well.
 Alberta nurses are standing firm, rejecting the insulting and
completely unacceptable demands from Alberta Health Services (AHS) and other
employers who are demanding a three per cent wage rollback, withdrawal
of a two per cent lump sum payment, and hundreds of other rollbacks to
their remuneration and conditions of work established in the 44
years since UNA was established.
The UCP government is making similar proposals to AUPE. AUPE's
General Support Services Bargaining Committee says, "A four per cent
wage rollback would be devastating for us and our families. Many of us
already work multiple jobs to make ends meet, and some of us are single
parents. We cannot afford wage rollbacks like this,
especially after the increased workload and stress thanks to the
pandemic. Before bargaining went on hold for the pandemic, AHS had
tabled a one per cent wage rollback. Is AHS saying we have become even
less valuable since the pandemic began?"
All of these changes are directed by the Kenney government. Under the provisions of Bill 21, the Public Sector Employers Act 2019,
the Minister of Labour can issue confidential directives that an
employer receiving any funds from the provincial government must follow
when "engaging in collective bargaining or a related process." The
employer cannot disclose the directive to any third party without prior
consent of the Minister, including to the union with which it is
supposedly engaged in "good faith bargaining." These secret directives
may set out the length of a collective agreement and "fiscal limits."
The Kenney government is not engaged in "negotiations" but is intent on
gutting the collective agreement through which nurses have established
their current wages, benefits, and working conditions.
Nurses
and health care workers across Canada are speaking out about their
unsustainable conditions of work. Exhaustion and burnout are at very
high levels, but despite the evident shortage of nurses and
difficulties retaining nurses, the Kenney government has announced
plans to cut the equivalent of 750 full-time
registered nurses, and to contract out up to 11,000 jobs in housekeeping, food
services and laundry. Emergency departments and other crucial services
in Alberta have closed beds in recent weeks for lack of staff.
 Neo-liberal governments all claim that health care and other public
sector workers are a drain on the economy, refusing to recognize the
tremendous value they create. They are demanding that the workers' claim
on the value they produce be reduced. Alberta nurses have militantly
defended their right to decide what wages, benefits and working
conditions are acceptable to them, and will not accept wages and
working conditions which jeopardize patient care, drive nurses from the
profession and insult their dignity. They have always had the full
support of Albertans in doing so.
Workers' Forum calls on all Alberta workers and concerned
citizens to go all out in support of nurses and all health care
workers. Join a picket line on August 11. Do not permit the Kenney
government to escalate the wrecking of public health care and the
brutal disregard for the rights and well-being of those who provide
care and
services.
This article was published in
August 11, 2021 - No. 68
Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/WF2021/Articles/WO08685.HTM
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
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