|
1984
New Provincial Office
In May of 1984, the Provincial Office of UNA moved into Principal Plaza (Metropolitan Place) on the corner of 103 Street and Jasper Avenue in Edmonton.
1985
Health Unit Strike
In early 1985, UNA began two tables of bargaining for new contracts for its health unit nurses. The employers came to the table with major takeaways and regressions. The HUAA and the Alberta West Central Health Unit employers did not believe that health unit nurses would choose strike action, and negotiations faltered in the face of the employers’ insistence on rollbacks. UNA left the table and took a successful strike vote.
On April 1, 1985, eight UNA health units began a legal strike. UNA and HUAA had been at one bargaining table representing ten health units and UNA was at a separate table with Alberta West Central Health Unit. When the employers’ last offer was presented to the nurses in the ten health units, the UNA members at Sturgeon Health Unit, Athabasca Health Unit and Alberta East Central Health Unit voted to accept the offer. The UNA members at the other seven health units voted to reject the offer. UNA signed off the offer for the three health units and that offer formed the basis of the Collective Agreement applicable to those three bargaining units. The “Group of Seven” health units that rejected the offer began a legal strike. Those seven health units were Leduc-Strathcona Health Unit, Vegreville Health
Unit, Minburn-Vermilion Health Unit, the City of Lethbridge Health Unit, Wetoka Health Unit, Big Country Health Unit and Northeastern Alberta Health Unit. The eighth health unit Local that began strike action on April 1, was the Local at Alberta West Central Health Unit which was bargaining at a separate bargaining table but faced the same unacceptable employer offer.
Also on April 1, 1985, approximately 15 UNA members in the Victorian Order of Nurses, Calgary, Local began a legal strike for improvements to their Collective Agreement. After frustrating sets of negotiations, the employer chose to cancel registered nursing services to their clients, and UNA striking nurses found alternate employment.
The health unit strikes (Group of Seven and Alberta West Central) continued as efforts were made to resume negotiations. In September the UNA negotiating committee met with the HUAA and Alberta West Central employers. A settlement was reached with Alberta West Central, and the strike continued for the Group of Seven.
October 1, 1985, Alberta West Central striking nurses returned to work with a negotiated Collective Agreement. Subsequently, the striking nurses put out a cookbook called Strike One.
In late 1985, the nurses at the City of Lethbridge Health Unit, and later the nurses at Wetoka Health Unit, returned to work with private contracts of employment.
| 
