Nurses union to protest salary rollbacks at hospitals across Alberta Aug. 11
Day of demonstration comes as 27 hospitals in Alberta report bed closures, service disruptions
Author of the article: Brittany Gervais
Publishing date: Aug 04, 2021 •
About 100 nurses and supporters staged a protest rally outside the Sturgeon Community Hospital in St. Albert on Monday, July 26, 2021, to protest proposed wage rollbacks and other changes in a new collective agreement.
PHOTO BY LARRY WONG /Postmedia
The union that represents Alberta nurses says its members will hold information pickets in at least 18 locations across the province to protest the Alberta government’s decision to roll back salaries and change health policies amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
The United Nurses of Alberta, which represents 30,000 members, has planned demonstrations for Aug. 11. Sites include four locations in Calgary, including the Peter Lougheed Centre, Foothills Medical Centre, Rockyview General Hospital and South Health Campus.
The demonstrations come as collective bargaining negotiations continue between the union and the province this week.
The province has proposed cutting nursing salaries by three per cent as a way to balance Alberta’s budgets, but the union argues it would actually amount to a five per cent reduction considering other rollbacks, such as the elimination of semi-annual lump sum payments and reduced shift and weekend premiums.
Cameron Westhead, second vice-president with the union, said after 18 months on the front lines of the pandemic, Alberta’s nurses are exhausted and demoralized.
“The rollbacks that have been proposed by the government are really an insult to us. The rollbacks aren’t going to help Alberta recruit and keep health-care workers, which is what we need to keep hospital beds open,” Westhead said. “We’ve seen temporary closures across the province as a result of short staffing.”
According to Alberta Health Services’ web page, 27 AHS facilities are experiencing temporary bed closures or service disruptions. In June, Health Minister Tyler Shandro blamed staff vacations for stresses in the health-care system, but later said “burnout” is playing a role here and in other jurisdictions.
Westhead said Shandro blaming shortages on nurses taking vacations added “another layer of demoralization.”
“(Nurses) have given everything they’ve had. They’re worried about their families and bringing the infection back home to their families, and nurses have been mandated to work overtime to deal with the short-staffing issue,” he said. “Even though they’re trying to take a day off . . . they aren’t given a choice. It’s either you come to work or you’re fired.”
During the height of the pandemic, nurses who weren’t trained to staff intensive-care units were called to help with care under supervision, Westhead said, which caused moral distress for those who were expected to take care of very sick patients without proper training.
Now that the province is planning to lift nearly all COVID-19 measures Aug. 16, Westhead said nurses and other health-care providers “are going to be the ones taking the brunt of this,” as it will be difficult to determine whether cases are going up without testing.
“That health-care system can be overwhelmed very quickly, and we won’t know about it until it’s too late.”
Other provinces have settled collective bargaining agreements with nurses’ unions in recognition that they need to focus on taking care of COVID-19 patients during the pandemic.
“When you have this uncertainty hanging over your head, like we do in Alberta, with the potential for wage rollbacks, that’s something that we don’t want to have to focus on right now. We would much rather conclude negotiations and get that out of the way.”
Kassandra Kitz, press secretary for Alberta’s finance minister, wrote in an email to Postmedia that “we respect the rights of Albertans to freely express their opinions,” but “we cannot lose sight of the fact that Alberta has a $17-billion deficit and has $93 billion in debt.”
“On average, Alberta nurses make 5.6 per cent more than in other comparator provinces. This costs Alberta approximately $141 million per year at a time when our finances are already stretched,” Kitz wrote.
“The need to bring wages in line with other large provinces does not diminish our deep respect for the exceptional work and dedication of public sector workers.”
Westhead said Alberta’s nurses are “paying the price” for Premier Jason Kenney’s “failed fiscal policies.”
“Jason Kenney likes to say he’s not going to raise taxes on people to pay for the COVID pandemic. But what he’s really doing is he’s asking nurses to pay a tax,” he said.
“Obviously, Alberta is in difficult financial circumstances. But it doesn’t make any sense to single out nurses to be the ones to pay for that.”
The union that represents Alberta nurses says its members will hold information pickets in at least 18 locations across the province to protest the Alberta government’s decision to roll back salaries and change health policies amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
The United Nurses of Alberta, which represents 30,000 members, has planned demonstrations for Aug. 11. Sites include four locations in Calgary, including the Peter Lougheed Centre, Foothills Medical Centre, Rockyview General Hospital and South Health Campus.
The demonstrations come as collective bargaining negotiations continue between the union and the province this week.
The province has proposed cutting nursing salaries by three per cent as a way to balance Alberta’s budgets, but the union argues it would actually amount to a five per cent reduction considering other rollbacks, such as the elimination of semi-annual lump sum payments and reduced shift and weekend premiums.
Cameron Westhead, second vice-president with the union, said after 18 months on the front lines of the pandemic, Alberta’s nurses are exhausted and demoralized.
“The rollbacks that have been proposed by the government are really an insult to us. The rollbacks aren’t going to help Alberta recruit and keep health-care workers, which is what we need to keep hospital beds open,” Westhead said. “We’ve seen temporary closures across the province as a result of short staffing.”
According to Alberta Health Services’ web page, 27 AHS facilities are experiencing temporary bed closures or service disruptions. In June, Health Minister Tyler Shandro blamed staff vacations for stresses in the health-care system, but later said “burnout” is playing a role here and in other jurisdictions.
Westhead said Shandro blaming shortages on nurses taking vacations added “another layer of demoralization.”
“(Nurses) have given everything they’ve had. They’re worried about their families and bringing the infection back home to their families, and nurses have been mandated to work overtime to deal with the short-staffing issue,” he said. “Even though they’re trying to take a day off . . . they aren’t given a choice. It’s either you come to work or you’re fired.”
During the height of the pandemic, nurses who weren’t trained to staff intensive-care units were called to help with care under supervision, Westhead said, which caused moral distress for those who were expected to take care of very sick patients without proper training.
Now that the province is planning to lift nearly all COVID-19 measures Aug. 16, Westhead said nurses and other health-care providers “are going to be the ones taking the brunt of this,” as it will be difficult to determine whether cases are going up without testing.
“That health-care system can be overwhelmed very quickly, and we won’t know about it until it’s too late.”
Other provinces have settled collective bargaining agreements with nurses’ unions in recognition that they need to focus on taking care of COVID-19 patients during the pandemic.
“When you have this uncertainty hanging over your head, like we do in Alberta, with the potential for wage rollbacks, that’s something that we don’t want to have to focus on right now. We would much rather conclude negotiations and get that out of the way.”
Kassandra Kitz, press secretary for Alberta’s finance minister, wrote in an email to Postmedia that “we respect the rights of Albertans to freely express their opinions,” but “we cannot lose sight of the fact that Alberta has a $17-billion deficit and has $93 billion in debt.”
“On average, Alberta nurses make 5.6 per cent more than in other comparator provinces. This costs Alberta approximately $141 million per year at a time when our finances are already stretched,” Kitz wrote.
“The need to bring wages in line with other large provinces does not diminish our deep respect for the exceptional work and dedication of public sector workers.”
Westhead said Alberta’s nurses are “paying the price” for Premier Jason Kenney’s “failed fiscal policies.”
“Jason Kenney likes to say he’s not going to raise taxes on people to pay for the COVID pandemic. But what he’s really doing is he’s asking nurses to pay a tax,” he said.
“Obviously, Alberta is in difficult financial circumstances. But it doesn’t make any sense to single out nurses to be the ones to pay for that.”
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