UNITED NURSES OF ALBERTA
For Immediate Release
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Nurses’ negotiations open with historic rollback proposals from Alberta Health Services
Alberta Health Services presented proposals for an unprecedented number of rollbacks in every possible aspect of the contract at the opening of provincial negotiations with United Nurses of Alberta yesterday.
“They are being intentionally provocative in their proposals. The AHS Board set principles that suggested working together and then brought forward proposals to cut salaries, benefits, safe care provisions, scheduling protections and just about every aspect of our contract,” said UNA President Heather Smith. “It’s an extreme proposal that we think is unreasonable. Trying to push nurses back won’t move health care forward.”
“It’s unfortunate we have to begin negotiations with this exaggerated posturing from the Employer.”
Many of the employers’ rollbacks would erode standards of good nursing care, safety in the workplace and the job security of nurses. One safety concern would be a reduction in the required rest time between shifts from 15.5 hours to just ten hours. The effect of a change to probation would be that casual employees are always on probation and could be terminated without cause, and without recourse to union defence. A brief summary of some of the Employer-proposed rollbacks is attached.
“Our health care system is still struggling with a nursing shortage and too few beds,” Heather Smith said. “We want these negotiations to make progress. We want Alberta Health Services to deal with the core problems that are leaving patients waiting far too long in emergency rooms, or packed into ‘overcapacity beds’ or waiting for surgery.”
“More nurses, more beds, more care is what Albertans need,” she said.
United Nurses of Alberta put forward a one-page shortlist of key issues nurses say must be addressed to improve nursing conditions and safety. UNA proposes nurses have the authority to call in more staff if they need them or to limit adding patients to a unit or program when it would be unsafe to do so. UNA also proposed wage increases of four per cent.
“We offered to leave almost all of the contract as is, and just focus on crucial improvements, but the Employers said they could not do that,” Heather Smith said.
When AHS said it could not proceed with the key issues shortlist, UNA provided AHS with a full set of proposals covering many aspects of the agreement.
“In this environment, we should have a common interest with Alberta Health Services. I’m disappointed that they are attempting to manipulate nurses and Albertans, when there are real health care issues to be addressed,” Heather Smith says.
The contract negotiations cover over 24,000 Registered Nurses and Registered Psychiatric Nurses, including all those in Alberta Health Services and Covenant Health.
The last provincial round of negotiations took place in 2007. The negotiated agreement included a 5% salary increase in each year of a three-year term. At the time Alberta Health Regions and UNA worked hard on retention and recruitment issues to encourage nurses to stay in the workforce, and to attract more nurses.
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For more information:
Heather Smith, President, United Nurses of Alberta
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