Nurses taking mediation recommendations to a vote
Negotiations continue with other Employers
EDMONTON May 29, 2004
Continued negotiations have resulted in Recommendations for a new contract for the province’s Registered nurses. The unanimous Recommendations come from the mediation panel chaired by Andrew Sims after further discussions over the past week. The United Nurses of Alberta negotiating team will be recommending that nurses accept the Recommendations that were issued by the panel late today.
“After nearly a year-and-a-half of talks, we are pleased to have come to what we hope is a mutually acceptable outcome,” says UNA President Heather Smith. “A negotiated deal is the best resolution, a win-win for the Health Regions, for nurses, and most importantly for safe nursing care for Albertans.”
The provincial negotiations also, however, include talks with several other Employers, the Continuing Care Employers Bargaining Association (CCEBA), the Good Samaritan Society, Bethany Care Cochrane, Millwoods Shepherd’s Care and the Alberta Cancer Board. Talks with the other Employers are scheduled over the next week.
Salaries were not a contentious issue in the talks and the Recommendations include salary increases of 3.5% in the first year and 3% in both the second and third years. The three-year contract would be a significant change; previous UNA agreements have been for only two years.
“The Recommendations strike a balance that addresses the needs of Employers and also protects nurses from being arbitrarily or unilaterally juggled from site to site. That would have seriously jeopardized safe nursing care and was one of our top issues,” Heather Smith said.
Health Employer plans to move nurses would have compromised safe nursing practices. This was unacceptable to nurses who voted 98.8% against recommendations that included this mobility last September.
Nurse delegates from all across the province will be in a Reporting Meeting on Monday to decide whether to put the settlement to a vote of the 20,000 or more Registered Nurses and Registered Psychiatric Nurses who work for the Health Regions. The meeting will be held in Calgary and is not open to media or the public.
The arbitration board of Andrew Sims, Employer nominee Bill Armstrong and UNA nominee Lyle Kanee was appointed by the government last December. However, the board agreed to attempt mediation to reach an agreement before proceeding to arbitration.
“This successful conclusion to these lengthy negotiations demonstrates that with enough will and energy, as has been shown by this panel, we can reach a productive, negotiated outcome,” Heather Smith said.
Results of nurses’ decisions at the Monday, May 31, 2004 meeting will be released as soon as they are available.
For comment: Heather Smith, President of United Nurses of Alberta 940-9974
Attachment: UNA has produced an overview of the main points covered by the Recommendations which is attached as overviewrecommendations.pdf
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