United Nurses of Alberta (UNA) was informed by Alberta Health
Services (AHS) on August 20 that it would once again invoke the
emergency provisions of its collective agreement with UNA to solve
"significant staffing issues."
AHS Senior Negotiations and Labour Relations Advisor Rick Mann
informed UNA in an email on August 21 that it will redeploy nursing
staff, mandate overtime and cancel scheduled vacations to ensure
staffing of intensive care units, emergency departments and other
units, UNA informs on its website.
"Further to our previous
notifications that we would be using the emergency provisions of the
collective agreements, we want to let you know that the situation has
progressed and created additional pressures throughout the healthcare
system, with the most impacted areas at this time being the Edmonton
and South Zones," Mann's email said.
The AHS spokesman stated that "AHS is feeling pressure due to
increasing occupancy, acuity and staff absences."
UNA Labour Relations Manager David Harrigan responded that UNA does
not believe the current situation meets the definition of emergency
under the collective agreement. The UNA collective agreement says, "An
emergency is an unforeseen combination of circumstances or the
resulting state that calls for immediate action. A situation is not
an emergency if it results from a reasonably foreseeable combination of
circumstances or if reasonable remedial steps could have been or can
still be taken to deal with the circumstances."
Harrigan noted that "most medical professionals in Alberta have
foreseen the problems now faced by AHS arising from a chronic shortage
of nursing staff in Alberta health care facilities and the pressures of
the fourth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic that were sure to arrive when
the government and public health officials rushed to reopen the
province too soon last month."
Jason
Kenney declared the pandemic over in July. This was followed by the
reckless decision to cancel COVID-19 testing and eliminate quarantine,
an announcement that was met with a storm of opposition and daily
rallies, forcing the Kenney government to take a step back and announce
that it was postponing these measures. But instead of
heeding the demands of health care workers including UNA and experts in
infectious diseases to put proper measures in place to deal with the
fourth wave, the government is again using its preferred option of
arbitrary force and dictate under the guise of an "emergency." The
government has not only failed to hire more nurses, but is sticking to
its
plan to eliminate some 750 registered nursing positions. The use of
"emergency powers" is actually making the crisis worse, and is being
militantly opposed by nurses across Canada and Quebec. Nurses point out
that forcing exhausted nurses to work more overtime, denying vacations
and imposing forced redeployment leads to more nurses
becoming sick and unable to work, and more nurses deciding to resign
their positions.
UNA also recently brought to light that private agencies are trying
to recruit nurses at higher rates than nurses are paid working for
Alberta Health Services. Despite the fact that AHS negotiators
confirmed the use of third party recruiters to UNA on August 11, the
Alberta government is also making the ridiculous and baseless claim
that UNA
is "bargaining in bad faith" by informing Albertans about what the
government is up to. This certainly shows their desperation to cover
their tracks as more and more people join in actions in support of the
demands of nurses and other health care workers.
UNA recently held a very successful Day of Action across the
province, and nurses joined by other health care workers, workers from
other sectors, seniors, women, and youth and students on their picket
lines. The strong spirit and determination to uphold their rights and
in this way do their duty to their patients was evident everywhere.
Human-centred solutions are needed which safeguard the health and
well-being of the nurses, not attacks which lead to more illness and
nurses resigning their jobs. Workers' Forum calls on all the workers to continue to provide all-out support for the demands of the nurses.
UNA day of action August 11, 2021
This article was published in
August 23, 2021- No. 73
Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/WF2021/Articles/WO08731.HTM
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
