Print1980 strike gave nurses Professional Responsibility Concerns process
Thirty-five years ago this month, 6,400 members of United Nurses of Alberta began a legal strike at 79 hospitals across Alberta. UNA had attempted to achieve a settlement at the bargaining table through conciliation, but when this failed, union members voted to strike.
On April 21, 1980, the Alberta government ordered nurses back to work. An emergency tribunal was instructed to issue a binding settlement and penalties for failure to comply with the back-to-work order were issued.
Nurses refused to return to work and UNA went to court to challenge the validity of the back-to-work order. Negotiations resumed soon after court proceedings began and a negotiated settlement was reached on April 27.
On April 28, Alberta’s nurses returned to work with a negotiated two-year settlement that included a 39.8% wage increase over two years, improved scheduling, the creation of a Professional Responsibility Concerns process and many other contract improvements.
In the 1980 round of hospital negotiations, the Alberta Hospitals Association (AHA) tried to proceed to compulsory arbitration for the Foothills Hospital, the Alberta Children’s Hospital and the Glenrose Hospital, which employed UNA members covered by the Public Services Employee Relations Act (PSERA). At the time, nurses employed at these three hospitals did not have a legal right to strike because their worksites were administered under a different labour relation law than most other health care worksites.
Under the terms of PSERA arbitration provisions, a number of issues were declared to be “non-arbitrable”, including a demand for a Professional Responsibility Concerns committee. Had UNA complied with the order to proceed to compulsory arbitration, these three hospitals could not have been awarded a PRC process.
Because UNA reached a negotiated settlement with the AHA in 1980, these three hospitals were included in the agreement to enshrine Professional Responsibility Concerns in the hospital provincial collective agreement.
