June 25, 2004
All contracts settled except for CCEBA and Cochrane
Only the contracts with certain Long-term Care Employers remain to be resolved in the provincial negotiation round. On June 24, UNA announced a tentative settlement with the Alberta Cancer Board. UNA has also settled with the Good Samaritan Society and Millwoods Shepherds Care. All of these agreements include the increases that UNA achieved in the contracts with the Health Regions. UNA members with these Employers will have the final say on tentative agreements in ratification votes coming up shortly.
UNA steps up pressure on these Long-term Care Employers
UNA members have mounted information pickets at several facilities over the past two weeks to keep up pressure on the Long-term Care Employers who continue to refuse to meet the provincial contract standards in negotiations.
“Only these long-term care Employers refuse to match the contract terms set with the Health Regions,” UNA President Heather Smith noted. “For some reason they seem to think that the 430 nurses that work in these nursing homes do not deserve the same standards that 20,000 nurses working in hospitals, in public health and in most of the province’s long-term care facilities.”
“Nurses will take as much action as necessary to make sure that some nurses in Long-term Care do not get left behind,” UNA President Heather Smith said today.
More talks are scheduled for June 29 and 30 with the Continuing Care Employers Bargaining Association of Alberta (CCEBA). Talks were also held recently with Bethany Care Cochrane, a single Long-term Care Employer outside the CCEBA group.
Last week, UNA placed large ads in newspapers around the province urging both the Cancer Board and the Long-term Care Employers to meet the contract standards negotiated with the Health Regions. The ads pointed out that in Long-term Care, the Employers want to eliminate the nurse-in-charge provisions, the ONLY provision that requires that there be a Registered nurse on shift in a nursing home.
Outstanding issues
Many issues remain on the table with CCEBA and Bethany Care Cochrane. Some of the most significant ones are:
• Nurse in-charge: Employers want to eliminate the obligation to have a Registered nurse in-charge and on duty.
• Benefits: matching the HOBP (Health Organizations Benefit Plan) or equivalent, and improved vision care,
• Portability of seniority: reciprocal clause that would let nurses move their seniority to another Employer and another bargaining unit.
• Increase in night shift differential from $1.75 to $2.00 an hour.
PROVINCIAL CONTRACT RATIFIED AND IN EFFECT
Mediation recommendations endorsed by 98% vote
UNA members ratified the main Health Regions’ contract in a province-wide ballot on June 8th. The Regions also ratified the contract which covers over 20,000 UNA members. Over 98% of the nurses voted to accept the Recommendations, which was a huge swing from the vote last September when over 98% voted against the mediation recommendations of that time.
“After nearly 18 months, we have a negotiated agreement,” says UNA President Heather Smith. “Reaching a settlement the Employers and nurses can both accept is the best way forward for safe nursing care in the province.”
The Recommendations came from the arbitration board of Andrew Sims, Employer nominee Bill Armstrong and UNA nominee Lyle Kanee that was appointed by the government last December. The board agreed to attempt mediation to reach an agreement before proceeding to arbitration. After 30 days of intense mediation talks, the three panel members unanimously decided to issue recommendations that they expected would be acceptable to both sides.
Time off to vote
Employees must have 3 consecutive hours off while polls are open
Every employee is entitled to have three non-work hours while election polls are open. Three continuous hours are required by law to vote in the federal election. If the polls are open for three hours before or after a shift, an Employee normally does not get any paid time off. But Nurses who, for example, work 12 hour shifts and would not have 3 hours off shift while the polls are open, must be allowed paid time off.
The federal election polls are open from 7:30 am to 7:30 pm.
The federal election polls are open from 7:30 am to 7:30 pm. As a result any nurse whose shift begins before 10:30 am and ends after 4:30 pm is entitled to at least some paid time off.
A nurse who begins a 12-hour shift at 7 am and would normally work until 7 pm must have three continuous hours off while polls are open. The Employer can choose when those hours are. The nurse could be off from 4:30 pm on, or from 1 pm to 4 pm, or any other three hour stretch the Employer chooses. There can be NO penalty, including any deduction in pay, for the time off.
Rumours of re-re-regionalization
Cutting down to 3, 4 or 5 Health Regions?
Rumours are flying that the provincial government is soon going to announce re-re-regionalization, cutting the number of Health Regions down from the present nine to somewhere from three to five regions. The persistent rumour varies on the timing of the third try at regionalization. (17 Regions in 1994, 9 Regions in 2002) The Premier’s big announcement of June 30th could include new regions to put something substantive in the mix not just trial balloons.
Legionella in two Calgary hospitals
Calgary Health Region announced last week that the Legionella bacteria that causes Legionnaires disease has been found in hot waters systems at the Rockyview and the Alberta Children’s Hospital. The Region says it will be installing a special $50,000 silver-copper ionization unit to kill the bacteria. The water is heated to about 82 C. No incidence of the actual disease was reported.
Canadian Nurses oppose privatization
Nurses from across the country endorsed a strongly worded motion on health care privatization at the Canadian Nurses Association in St. John’s Newfoundland this week.
END THE FOR-PROFIT DELIVERY AND FOR-PROFIT FINANCE OF HEALTH CARE IN CANADA
Be it resolved, that the Canadian Nurses Association lobby the Prime Minister, Minister of Health and other political leaders in the federal government to use all available means in ending for profit delivery of health care in Canada.
Be it further resolved, that the Canadian Nurses Association lobby the Prime Minister, Minister of Health and other political leaders in the federal government to remove incentives that encourage public-private partnerships (P3s) and to commit to ending P3s using all available means.
Be it further resolved, that the Canadian Nurses Association strongly advocate for the enforcement of the Canada Health Act to ensure that the health services in all provinces and territories are delivered in a publicly funded, not for profit delivery basis. “
British P3 hospital could have pumped “quarantine containment” air into public spaces
A British newspaper, the Observer, revealed this week that a three-year old P3 hospital at Norwich never had essential ducting hooked up to its quarantine rooms. The negative pressure containment rooms are used to treat highly contagious diseases like SARS or tuberculosis. “…A suspicious senior nurse lifted ceiling tiles in the third-floor ward areas and found that air ducting was not connected,” reports the Observer. The hospital was built with private money in 2001 and now the company is strapped for cash to do repairs and recently lost its chief executive officer. “It appears a major tragedy has been averted only by luck, not judgment,” said local British MP, Norman Lamb.
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