For Immediate Release June 14, 2004
LRB orders Employers to vote
Long-term care Employers and Cancer Board blocking contract with nurses
The Alberta Labour Relations Board (LRB) has ordered long-term care Employers of nurses to vote on the last offer in contract negotiations with nurses. The United Nurses of Alberta (UNA) applied to the LRB to order the vote.
“The Alberta Cancer Board and the long-term care Employers are risking holding up the new contract for all nurses by refusing to match what is now the standard. That’s why we asked the LRB to intervene,” says UNA President Heather Smith.
UNA has also applied to the LRB to order the Cancer Board to vote. The Cancer Board has objected to the application and the LRB will be holding a hearing on Tuesday, June 22, 2004.
Heather Smith explained that unless agreements are reached with the smaller Employers the nurses could be forced to hold another provincial vote and take further action.
The United Nurses of Alberta is continuing negotiations with other smaller Employers after successfully reaching a settlement with the Health Regions last week. An agreement has also been reached with the Good Samaritan Society that operates long-term care facilities, but deals are being blocked with other long-term care operators (the Continuing Care Employers Bargaining Association (CCEBA)) and with the Alberta Cancer Board.
Talks broke off with the Alberta Cancer Board on Friday, June 11. Negotiations reached an impasse with the Board over a few points, most importantly benefits for nurses on unpaid terminal care leave.
“We set the provincial standard for nurses’ working conditions when we reached an agreement with the Health Regions,” Heather Smith says.
“We will not leave the nurses working for these other Employers behind. In order to be in the market to hire nurses, these other Employers know full well they have to match the standard conditions nurses work under with the Health Regions. We have been clear since we began these talks in January of 2003 that we entered bargaining together and we will end bargaining together,” she said.
The long-term care Employers d o n o t w a n t t o m e e t t h e requirement to h a v e a R e g i s t e r e d n u r s e i n c h a r g e a n d o n d u t y a t a l l t i m e s . The nurse in charge provision has been standard for years and was just recently renewed in the nurses’ contracts with the Regions. Several other working condition issues also remain outstanding.
The LRB ordered the long-term care Employers to register their vote on the nurses’ last offer, which was closely based on the settlement with the Health Regions, by Wednesday, June 16, 2004.
The Alberta Cancer Board and UNA have only a few remaining issues. Besides refusing to cost share benefits for nurses on unpaid compassionate leave, the Board is rejecting a change to vision care benefits. They also are refusing retroactive pay for nurses who have left their employment since the former contract expired March 31, 2003.
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For comment contact Heather Smith, President of United Nurses of Alberta
Tel: 780 425-1025
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