CLASS WAR IN ALBERTA
Alberta nurses accuse province of breach of contract in wage talks
By Dean Bennett The Canadian Press May 16, 2019

https://globalnews.ca/video/rd/1522393155866/?jwsource=cl

The union representing Alberta’s registered nurses is accusing the province of breach of faith and breach of contract after the government successfully sought a delay in the latest round of wage negotiations.

The United Nurses of Alberta says the province had no authority to intervene last week to get a labour arbitration hearing on wages extended past the legal deadline.

The nurses have been negotiating with their employer, Alberta Health Services, which is funded by the government but runs at arm’s length to deliver front-line care.


Union spokesman David Harrigan said it has asked the Alberta Labour Relations Board to review the delay and to replace the arbitrator.

Harrigan said the government’s intervention is troubling, not only in this instance, but also because it sends a disconcerting message on labour relations under new Premier Jason Kenney’s United Conservative government.


“The message is clear: this government believes it doesn’t have to follow the rules and it can break contracts,” Harrigan said in an interview Tuesday.

“If we negotiate something in good faith and then the government just steps in and says, ‘We’re going to tear that up,’ it makes people wonder why would we spend time and effort bargaining?”


Finance Minister Travis Toews confirmed that the province told Alberta Health Services to ask the arbitrator for an extension, which was granted on Friday.

Toews said it was a prudent move while a government-appointed independent panel looks for ways to save money to get the provincial budget back to balance.


“We simply think it’s the responsible thing to do as we understand our economic realities in this province,” said Toews.

Alberta has been filing multibillion-dollar budget deficits in recent years and Kenney has promised to get the books balanced during his four-year term.

The independent panel, announced last week and chaired by former Saskatchewan finance minister Janice MacKinnon, is to advise ways to help the province save money. The group is to report by Aug. 15.

MacKinnon has previously advocated cutting salaries as one way to get books in balance. Harrigan said the arbitration delay may be the first step in such a strategy by the Alberta government.

Toews said there’s been no decision on cutting wages for nurses, but added: “We’re keeping all options open at this point.”

The talks involve a three-year contract that saw nurses take zero per cent pay increases in the first two years with the option to negotiate and go to arbitration in the third and final year.

READ MORE: Alberta nurses ratify deal that includes wage freeze, job security 2018The agreement covers about 28,000 registered nurses and registered psychiatric nurses. The three-year agreement will run retroactive from April 2017 to March 31, 2020, and includes a wage re-opening provision in the third year.

Under the contract, the arbitration hearing was to take place before June 30. The arbitrator has moved it to an unspecified later date.

Christina Gray, labour critic for the Opposition NDP and a former labour minister, said unions agreed to wage freezes while the NDP was in government because trust had been built up as the province worked to reduce spending.

Gray said Toews’s wage gambit suggests the province is willing to burn those bridges with unions.

“The government is playing a dangerous game when it disrespects workers,” said Gray.

“The road the government is going down now leads to mistrust with front-line workers and possible job action.”

 UNITED NURSES OF ALBERTA FORGED IN STRUGGLE

UNA WAS BORN OUT OF A WILDCAT STRIKE AGAINST ANTI UNION LEGISLATION

FORBIDDING THEM TO STRIKE AS AN ESSENTIAL SERVICE


READ MORE: Jason Kenney and UCP promise $714M budget surplus by 2023 AUSTERITY FANTASIES CONSERVATIVES HAVE NEVER BALANCED A BUDGET
THEY CAN'T THEY LOVE TAX CUTS FOR THE 1% TOO MUCH AND TAX CUTS MEAN WAGE CUTS, JOB CUTS AND SERVICE CUTS FOR THE 99%OF US
ONLY THE NDP HAVE BALANCED THE BUDGET WHEN THEY ARE THE PROVINCIAL
GOVERNMENT 

SEE

100 YEARS AGO AUPE WAS FORGED IN THE FIRE OF THE 1919 GENERAL STRIKE!

CLASS WAR IN ALBERTA AUPE FIGHTS BACK

Have you ever thought bosses need even more power over workers? No? Well, our UCP government seems to think so. 🤔

They want to get rid of overtime banking for non-union workers, bring back scabs for public sector labour disputes, and more! 👎🏾 What do you think of the government's Better for Bosses Act?

CLASS WAR IN ALBERTA - UPDATED

Leaked letter reveals Alberta is eyeing legislation, if necessary, to override public sector wage talks | The Star

Alberta’s finance minister says the government will pass legislation if necessary to override collective bargaining agreements with unions and delay contractually mandated wage talks

ALL CLASS WAR IN ALBERTA STORIES

We Get Complaints

Remember the cartoon with the bottomless box labeled 'complaints'.

Foreign workers get complaints office

Of course it's kind of hard to complain when you are dead.



SEE:

Alberta's Padrone Culture

AUPE Calls General Strike Over Safety

Day of Mourning

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CLAC, unions, labour shortage, Monte Solberg, Canada, Alberta, tarsands, oilsands, labour, labor, work, jobs, IBEW, Merit Contractors, non-union, rat unions, yellow dog union, Timmies, Tim Hortons, temporary workers

Nova Scota Imitates Alberta

Alberta has the most regressive labour laws in Canada. It long ago banned hospital workers, including nurses, right to strike. That of course did not stop those workers from going on strike. The right to strike is an essential workers right and is defended by the International Labour Organization as such. It is as essential as the right to unionize.

If governments banned the right to unionize it would be seen as the actions of an authoritarian state. The same goes for banning the right to strike. Ironically unions were banned in the 19th Century as 'criminal conspiracies' to limit trade. It was several years after Canada became a nation that Britain changed its laws and Canada followed suit. That did not stop workers from organizing unions, as secret societies; like the Knights of Labor. It meant workers on the job organized, and went on strike because that is their right as workers. All we have to sell is our labour or our time, our presence on the job.

In Alberta hospital workers were declared an essential service that still did not prevent AUPE or the Nurses union from going out on 'illegal' strikes. And win wage and benefit gains.

In Nova Scotia the hospital employers are running TV ads, I have satellite so I get to see them when I watch the CFL or NHL on CBC Halifax, claiming it hurt patients and is in everyones 'best' interest to end the right to strike. They claim other provinces do it and it has brought labour peace. Actually they meant to say appeasement. However that being said these employers are just another arm of government. They are government appointees or hirelings. So while one arm of the government, the legislature, brings in anti-worker anti-union anti-strike laws the other arm of the government, its employer association running the public hospitals, does the PR for the law.

The fact is that if the employer, who is the government, would fund hospitals and medical services properly then workers would be assured of proper wage and benefit increases, and proper hours of work. Instead the employer, which is the government, wants to cut wages, benefits and contract out work, split shifts, end seniority etc. etc.

A group that does not face these draconian attacks is of course the Doctors who are a business monopoly. There are few doctors strikes in Canada, and if they do occur they are short lived because governments assure doctors their services are paid for. Then they turn around and cut services in hospitals and cut other workers wages and benefits and tell them to hold the line.

The reality is that mediation only works between equals. In this case the government and its hospital administration view doctors as indispensable, and other workers as dispensable. If they didn't they would fund hospitals fully so all workers got the pay, benefits and hours of work they deserve. If that was the case there would be no need to strike.

Mediation does not work. Nor does denying workers the right to strike. They will, as history has shown, strike when they get cheated and screwed whether it is against the law or not.

What is interesting is that this balanced and pro-union article is from a Business Journal.

Union Dues: Anti-strike bill 'political posturing'
BY BRIAN FLINN, TRANSCONTINENTAL MEDIA
The Nova Scotia Business Journal

Health workers, the NDP and the Liberals are lined up against the government's highest-profile bill as the Nova Scotia legislature ends a seven-month summer break. Premier Rodney MacDonald said he's pushing ahead with the doomed anti-strike legislation because Nova Scotians deserve to hear it debated and find out how their MLAs vote. But he's not putting his minority government's survival on the line.

"There won't be any confidence votes this fall," MacDonald told reporters.

The government has been working on a bill to replace health strikes with arbitration since a brief IWK walkout earlier this year. Health- and community-care workers don't want to lose collective bargaining rights, and plan to rally outside Province House today while Lt.-Gov. Mayann Francis reads the speech from the throne.

"We're pleased the opposition will defeat this bill," said Joan Jessome, president of the Nova Scotia Government and General Employees Union. "But it can come back again and again. We need to make our point strong and clear enough to put this to rest."

The premier said he does plan to revive the bill later. "I'm a patient person," he said.

Both the Liberals and the NDP plan to defeat the bill at the first opportunity, when it goes to a second reading vote. MacDonald said the Liberals are "stuck in the past," while the NDP is standing up for special interests.

"They receive a lot of funding from the unions. They generally tend to be the biggest contributor to the NDP and most of their candidates," he said. "It's unfortunate; you don't put that ahead of health and safety."

NDP Leader Darrell Dexter said MacDonald is trying to distract attention from bigger problems in health care, such as emergency-room closings and the shortage of nursing-home beds. He said it's unfortunate the government is wasting some of the few days it allows the legislature to sit, on a doomed bill. "This bill is purely a product of political posturing," Dexter said.

Liberal Leader Stephen McNeil said he doesn't hear Nova Scotians pleading for anti-strike legislation. He said his party wants to co-operate with health workers, not take away their rights. "Where's the crisis?" McNeil asked. "I have yet to understand why the premier and the government are hanging their hats on this issue."

The House has to sit for only two days to avoid the label of the laziest legislature in Canada for a fourth year in a row. Prince Edward Island's House sat just 24 days this year, one more than Nova Scotia. – The Daily News

EXTRA: Strike threats useful warning system
By Brian Flinn, Transcontinental Media

Taking the right to strike away from health workers would damage an important safety mechanism and jeopardize the care of Nova Scotians, according to a new study by the Centre for Policy Alternatives.

Saint Mary's University professors Judy and Larry Haiven wrote that health workers know when the system is being pushed beyond tolerable limits and can signal it by threatening to strike. They said it's similar to the "red cord" used to stop assembly lines when something goes wrong in a factory.

"Health-care workers must have a way of indicating that the conditions under which they work do not overstress them or the quality of health-care delivery," the Haivens wrote. "Thus, in the health-care system, the red cord can be said to be the power of health-care workers to threaten to, and if necessary, withhold their labour."

Labour Minister Mark Parent has argued a modern health-care system cannot tolerate work stoppages. The report says "management by stress" now predominates in health care, and an outlet is more important than ever. "If politicians and health-care administrators insist on running a system so close to the bone, then the ability of workers to strike, to pull the red cord, as it were, is an essential system mechanism to ensure patient safety in the long run." – The Daily News

And this is from the Dominion Blog

November 23, 2007

NS Government Faces Heat Over Anti-Strike Bill

In one of the more polite demonstrations I've attended, a union coalition lead by the Nova Scotia General Employees Union staged a sidewalk rally of about 500 in front of the province's legislature on Thursday. While members of the crowd, which included a strong contingent of nurses and healthcare workers, heckled Premier Rodney Macdonald's minority government (top pic), the military guard-laden arrival of Nova Scotia's Lt.-Gov Mayann Francis, due to read her first speech from the throne, on the other side of the building was met with no interruption (bottom pic). After Macdonald's assertion that the unions were being "disrespectful" for holding a demonstration during the ceremonial speech from the throne, the union leadership responded by urging demonstrators to remain quiet outside of the legislature while Francis made her speech.

The rally was called in response to a bill due to be introduced by the minority tories banning the right to strike for the 32,000 healthcare workers in Nova Scotia. Macdonald had promised to introduce the bill in May following a one-day strike at a children's hospital in Halifax. The bill seems to be on the verge of being junked as a result of the union campaign, as both the Liberals and NDP have pledged to vote against it, were it to be introduced by the minority government. As a result, Macdonald has admitted he is unwilling to see his government fall as a result of the proposed anti-strike legislation.

Regardless of this apparent defeat, the throne speech outlined the Tory government's plans to establish more publicly funded, private health facilities in the province.

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health care, medicare, Canada, Conservatives, hospital workers, health, Rodney MacDonald, right to strike, unions, Nova Scotia

Alberta leaves National Day for Truth and Reconciliation stat holiday up to employers

By Emily Mertz Global News
Posted August 27, 2021 

For the first time, Sept. 30 will mark the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. Allison Bamford explains who gets it off and how others are recognizing a date – Aug 18, 2021




While the government of Alberta “encourages all Albertans to reflect on the legacy of residential schools” on Sept. 30, it’s leaving the implementation of a statutory holiday up to individual employers for provincially-regulated industries.

In June, Ottawa declared Sept. 30 the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation — a federal statutory holiday that is meant to give public servants an opportunity to recognize the legacy of residential schools.

The designated paid holiday for federal employees also addresses one of the 94 calls to action from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

READ MORE: There’s a new federal holiday in September. What does it mean for you?

“For provincially-regulated industries, the question on a work holiday is a decision for individual employers, unless an employee’s employment contract or collective bargaining agreement specifically grants federally-regulated holidays,” explained Adrienne South, press secretary for Alberta’s ministry of Indigenous Relations.

The province encourages reflection, and will lower flags on Alberta government buildings on Sept. 30 “to honour lives lost at residential schools, and commemoration ceremonies will take place.

“We must not limit our acknowledgement to the legacy of residential schools to just one day. Alberta’s government will work with First Nations and Métis communities in establishing a permanent memorial on the Alberta legislature grounds for the victims of the residential school system,” South said.

She added the province is “committed to implementing the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s provincial calls to action, including helping Indigenous Albertans reclaim their traditional Indigenous names.”

READ MORE: Stoney Nakoda celebrate name change of Alberta mountain landmark

Mountain loses racist and misogynistic name, returns to former title – Sep 29, 2020

However, the Assembly of First Nations Alberta Association said it’s upset the provincial government is not considering legislation to widely observe Sept. 30 as a statutory holiday.

“There have been too many stories in recent days of this provincial government ignoring First Nations peoples and communities in the province as of late, enough is enough,” Regional Chief Marlene Poitras said in a news release Friday.

“Why won’t the government step up and acknowledge this day, which directly responds to the TRC calls to action to bring more awareness to the struggles Canada’s First Peoples have gone through in dealing with colonization?


“This refusal to formally acknowledge the Sept. 30 federal holiday within Alberta flies in the face of reconciliation with First Nations and shows a disdain and lack of care or respect for Alberta’s Indigenous population.”

Poitras also pointed to concerns raised by an Alberta First Nation about not having adequate access to the referendum questions and senate vote being included in many Oct. 19 municipal elections.

“I have also been told that the government is not taking any steps to ensure that First Nations can participate effectively in referendum items during upcoming municipal elections in regards to Daylight Saving and the equalization formula.

“While $10 million is being funneled into municipalities to support ease of voting on these items, no booths are being set up on the Nations, who are not municipalities and do not follow the same electoral rotation as other communities.

“Instead, we are told: ‘drive to the nearest community.’ For some nations in Alberta, this is an over 100-kilometre trek in one direction. For others, they are fly-in communities and are left without any options to participate in the democratic process.”

Poitras says this sends a message to First Nations peoples that their voices don’t matter.

“I call upon the government of Alberta to course correct these actions immediately, set up polling stations on referendum items on reserve and also to acknowledge the Sept. 30, 2021 National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.”

Elections Alberta and the ministry of Municipal Affairs confirmed Thursday some people will have to travel to a nearby municipality or vote by mail to participate.

“Not every community hosts an election this fall; summer villages, improvement districts, special areas, First Nations, and the Alberta side of the City of Lloydminster do not have municipal elections this October,” Minister of Municipal Affairs spokesperson Mark Jacka told Global News.

“To ensure easily accessible voting information as well as easy access to voting opportunities, partnering communities will provide First Nations residents with election notification and the information required to cast their ballots.”

READ MORE: Alberta First Nation feels left out on fall referendum votes, senate election

Concerns raised over lack of on-reserve voting in Alberta referendum, Senate votes

The Alberta Union of Provincial Employees (AUPE) said Aug. 25 it was filing formal policy grievances against employers, including Alberta Health Services (AHS), that are refusing to acknowledge the newly created National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.

The union said some employers “are not honouring the new holiday” despite “collective agreements which compel the employers to acknowledge holidays created by the federal government.”


READ MORE: Alberta pledges $8M to help First Nations locate and honour graves at residential schools

However, a spokesperson for AHS told Global News the health agency “may or may not be obligated to recognize a new federally-regulated holiday as part of signed collective bargaining agreements with unionized employees.”

The issue is being reviewed, said Kerry Williamson.

“AHS has been working with stakeholders, including the Wisdom Council, on how to best recognize the day in a meaningful way and planning is underway.

“AHS has been recognizing Sept. 30, Orange Shirt Day, for many years,” Williamson said.

Saskatchewan events commemorate Orange Shirt Day

Meanwhile, Saskatchewan has not declared Sept. 30 a provincial holiday but it falls on the same day as provincially-proclaimed Orange Shirt Day — a day on which people honour residential school survivor Phyllis Webstad, who had her orange shirt taken away on the first day of school.

“We continue to proclaim Sept. 30 as Orange Shirt Day and recognize it as an important day of remembrance for those who have suffered harm and to honour those lives that were lost at residential schools,” said a government of Saskatchewan spokesperson.

Employees still have to work that day, but all provincial government buildings will lower flags to half-mast.

Similarly, in Saskatchewan schools, staff and students will be in the classroom on Sept. 30.

How to move forward with the TRC’s calls to action – Jun 26, 2021

© 2021 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

First Nations furious over province's refusal to declare holiday recognizing residential school tragedies

“This government’s actions are showing that First Nations aren’t just an afterthought, they are outright unimportant.”

Author of the article: Bill Kaufmann

Publishing date: Aug 27, 2021 • 

Members of the Bear Clan sing and drum at the Calgary City Hall memorial for children who did not return home from residential schools on Thursday August 26, 2021. The City is looking at creating a permanent memorial site.

 PHOTO BY GAVIN YOUNG /Postmedia


Alberta First Nations are angry over the UCP government’s plan to let employers decide whether or not they will recognize the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation as a statutory holiday.

The federal government recently passed legislation to give that designation to Sept. 30 and make it a federal stat holiday, giving Canadians an opportunity to recognize the brutal hardships endured by Indigenous people in the residential school system and honour Indigenous legacies.

It is up to each province and territory to decide if it will follow Ottawa’s lead and make the day a holiday. The UCP government has decided to leave it to employers in provincially regulated industries as to whether they’ll give their staff that day off work.

Already some organizations are making Sept. 30 a day of special recognition. The Calgary Catholic School District and Calgary Board of Education are marking the day by suspending classes for students.

The government of Alberta encourages all Albertans to reflect on the legacy of residential schools, Adrienne South, press secretary for the ministry of Indigenous Relations, said in a statement.

“For provincially regulated industries, the question on a work holiday is a decision for individual employers, unless an employee’s employment contract or collective bargaining agreement specifically grants federally regulated holidays,” South noted.

She said the province on that day will also be lowering flags to half-mast “to honour lives lost at residential schools, and commemoration ceremonies will take place.”

But that isn’t sufficient, says the Assembly of First Nations Alberta Association, which accused the UCP government of giving short shrift to reconciliation by not declaring a statutory holiday.

“There have been too many stories in recent days of this provincial government ignoring First Nations peoples and communities in the province as of late; enough is enough,” Regional Chief Marlene Poitras said in a statement Friday.

“This refusal to formally acknowledge the September 30th federal holiday within Alberta flies in the face of reconciliation with First Nations and shows a disdain and lack of care or respect for Alberta’s Indigenous population.”

Poitras said fully honouring a day of reflection would fulfil the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s call to actively promote awareness “to the struggles Canada’s First Peoples have gone through in dealing with colonization.”

South said remembering the legacy of residential schools shouldn’t be limited to one day and that the government will collaborate with First Nations and Metis communities to establish a permanent monument to that history on the legislature grounds.

“Those who were so deeply affected by the terrible legacy of residential schools will forever be remembered,” she said.

The government will also continue to fulfil the TRC’s vision by restoring Indigenous names, such as a recently renamed mountain near Canmore.

The B.C. government has advised public sector employers to give staff the day off on Sept. 30.

“Our government is calling on all of us who deliver services to the public to use this opportunity to consider what each of us can do as individuals to advance reconciliation with Indigenous peoples and to recommit to understanding the truth of our shared history,” Murray Rankin, Minister of Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation, and Selina Robinson, Minister of Finance said in a joint statement in B.C.

The Alberta Union of Provincial Employees has filed a formal grievance with the employers, including the AHS, for not honouring the federal statutory holiday.

“To stick their noses up at the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation is a new level of heartless disrespect,” said AUPE vice-president Bobby-Joe Borodey.

“How dare they refuse to acknowledge a day to reflect on such a serious issue.”

The Alberta ANF’s Poitras also castigated the province for not planning to provide polling stations on First Nations so their residents can vote in this October’s referendum questions on the federal equalization program and daylight time.

“Instead, we are told ‘drive to the nearest community.’ For some nations in Alberta, this is an over 100 kilometre trek in one direction; for others, they are fly-in communities and are left without any options to participate in the democratic process,” she said.

“This government’s actions are showing that First Nations aren’t just an afterthought, they are outright unimportant.”

BKaufmann@postmedia.com

Calgary Board of Education to recognize National Day for Truth and Reconciliation

Dave Dormer

CTVNewsCalgary.ca Digital Producer
Published Friday, August 27, 2021


CALGARY -- Calgary Board of Education schools will be closed Sept. 30 to recognize the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.

CBE Supt. Christopher Usih made the announcement in a letter to parents and guardians on Friday.

"The intention of the day is to recognize and honour residential school survivors, their families and communities. It will also ensure that public commemoration of the tragic and painful history and legacy of residential schools remains a vital component of the reconciliation process," it read.

Related Stories
New federal holiday will help Canadians 'understand that truth' of residential schools

Union accuses Alberta Health Services of denying staff new statutory holiday

Because it is a federal holiday, the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation only automatically applies to the federal government, federal crown boards and agencies and federally regulated companies.

"However, for the 2021-22 school year, Thursday, Sept. 30 will be a non-operational day to commemorate truth and reconciliation across the Calgary Board of Education. This means there will be no classes and schools will be closed for the day," said Usih.

"As a result of this change, Friday, Dec. 10 will once again be a regular school day."

That will only apply for this year, added Usih, and CBE officials will determine how to mark the day going forward.

CBE has asked that all schools recognize Truth and Reconciliation Week from Sept. 27 to Oct. 1, 2021.

"This week will honour Every Child Matters and Orange Shirt Day and provides flexibility for schools to select at least one school day within this week to recognize Orange Shirt Day with students while learning about the history and legacy of residential schools," said Usih.

The provincial government says it will encourage all Albertans to reflect on the impact residential schools had on Indigenous people and Canada as a whole. Officials said government buildings will have their flags lowered on Sept. 30 and ceremonies are planned to take place.

As for the holiday itself, officials say the decision about whether or not employees will have a day off is up to the employer in cases where a collective bargaining agreement does not expressly say that federally regulated holidays are granted.

Nevertheless, the Alberta government says the memorial for the victims should not take place on just one day.

"Alberta’s government will work with First Nations and Métis communities in establishing a permanent memorial on the Alberta legislature grounds for the victims of the residential school system, so that those who were so deeply affected by the terrible legacy of residential schools will forever be remembered," said Adrienne South, press secretary for Indigenous Relations Minister Rick Wilson in an email to CTV News.

"The government of Alberta is also committed to implementing the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s provincial calls to action, including helping Indigenous Albertans reclaim their traditional Indigenous names."

COAL FOR KENNEY UTUBE RAGING GRANNIES YYC

SEE


https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=kenney

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=UCP

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=ALBERTA

SEE     https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=MINTZ

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=GENERAL+STRIKE

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=AUPE

THE GHOST OF KLEIN HAUNTS ALBERTA
About 350 AHS jobs to be affected by outsourcing of linen and laundry services

Ashley Joannou 

© Provided by Edmonton Journal The Alberta Health Services logo.


Alberta Health Services is outsourcing the last of its in-house laundry jobs, impacting 334 employees.

In a statement Monday, AHS said the remaining linen and laundry services will transition to K-Bro Linen Systems starting in September.

K-Bro already handles more than two-thirds of AHS’s linen services including in Calgary, Edmonton, Hinton and Edson.

The company will begin taking over the rural Calgary zone followed by the south, central and north zones. AHS estimates it will take 34 weeks for K-Bro to completely take over providing linen services throughout the province by April 2022.

“If AHS were to try to maintain the existing in-house services, more than $38 million in upgrades would be required to ensure both safety and quality of services. Alternatively, AHS would need to invest more than $100 million to build new modern linen systems across the province,” the statement says.

The outsourcing will impact approximately 334 full-time, part-time and casual employees, the health authority said.

“AHS is committed to working with them and their union throughout this process to explore potential options in accordance with the collective agreement,” according to the statement.

Kevin Barry, vice-president of the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees (AUPE), said the move to outsource the remaining jobs is going to hurt rural Alberta. He expects K-Bro to centralize operations in larger cities and not keep the rural positions that exist now.

“(Government officials) talk about a strategy to help small businesses recover from the pandemic and this is certainly not a way to do it — to cut jobs from the rural communities who are going to need these people to shop in their communities to help support small business,” he said.

K-Bro Linen Systems did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday.

Barry said it is risky to be trucking in linen to communities if there is ever bad weather that might impact road conditions.

Last year the government said it would be cutting 11,000 Alberta Health Services jobs mostly by outsourcing positions in laboratories, housekeeping, food services and laundry. The change is estimated to save $600 million annually.

A review conducted by Ernst & Young in 2020 found that outsourcing seven different services including linen, housekeeping and food would save the government between $100 million and $146 million annually.

The news of the upcoming cuts led to a one-day wildcat strike last year by some AHS employees in an effort to get the government to change its mind.

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2021/07/kenney-ghost-of-klein-alberta-hospital.html

FOR BACKGROUND ON K-BRO, AND THE WILCAT STRIKE AGAINST KLEIN IN 1995 SEE

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for LAUNDRY WORKERS 

LAWN ORDER GOVERNMENT

Braid: Criminals walk as UCP faces chronic problems with prosecution service

If prosecutors walk off the job, hundreds of cases would suddenly shut down, letting more perpetrators walk free

Author of the article: Don Braid • Calgary Herald
Publishing date: Apr 20, 2022 •

Crown prosecutor Aaron Rankin poses for a portrait at Centrium Place in downtown Calgary on Tuesday, April 19, 2022. 

PHOTO BY AZIN GHAFFARI /Postmedia

Alberta’s Crown counsels — the ones who prosecute offenders — are talking seriously about going on strike. This is another crisis nobody needs, least of all the UCP government.

The Crown attorneys association has a meeting Thursday with Treasury Board officials that could lead to progress on pay.

This is welcome. Most Alberta prosecutors earn far less than their counterparts in other provinces. The gap with Ontario is said to be 40 per cent.

But pay is only one problem. On March 22, the Alberta Crown Attorneys’ Association sent Premier Jason Kenney a letter, asking for an urgent meeting.

They said, in part: “The Alberta Crown Prosecution Service is in crisis.

“Crushing file loads, inadequate mental health supports and uncompetitive compensation have led to dozens of unfilled prosecutor positions.

“We have seen a significant number of prosecutors leave the ACPS for places like British Columbia and Ontario, to the extent that the ACPS often seems like a farm team for other prosecution services.”

If prosecutors walk off the job, hundreds of cases would suddenly shut down, letting more perpetrators walk free.

As many as 3,000 cases are already at risk of withdrawal because they haven’t been taken to court within time limits. A work stoppage by the Crowns would add many more. After a strike of any length, the courts would face even greater backlogs when trials resumed.

“One of the very last things we want to do is go on strike, but we’re forced to look out for the long-term viability of the (prosecution) service,” says Dallas Sopko, president of the Alberta Crown Attorneys’ Association (ACAA).

Dallas Sopko, president of the Alberta Crown Attorneys’ Association, says there is strong support for a strike. 

PHOTO BY IAN KUCERAK /Postmedia

“We did a survey of our members and a very strong majority were in favour of going on strike. This isn’t just a bluff. This isn’t just words we throw around loosely.”

Under current conditions, the letter says, cases that could be stayed include “sexual assault, robberies, domestic assaults and other crimes of significant violence.” That doesn’t include hundreds of even more serious cases awaiting trial in Court of Queen’s Bench.

The prosecutors didn’t get a meeting with the premier. But “discussions” have started.

Alberta has about 380 Crown lawyers. The count is fluid because departures (and some additions) happen regularly.

The government did announce hiring of 50 new Crown prosecutors, mostly at the junior level. Officials say those people were brought on.

But still, departures are so high that nearly 40 positions are now vacant. In recent weeks three prosecutors from the Calgary office and four in Edmonton have taken jobs in other provinces. Every time that happens, the court backlogs stack up further.


MORE ON THIS TOPIC

Crown prosecutors see 'glimmer of hope' to avoid strike after government meeting

Possible Crown prosecutor strike would bring justice system to a 'grinding halt'

The UCP has said for three years now that public servants make too much money in comparison with other provinces, based on the findings of the MacKinnon Report. The government’s key policy goal is to bring pay into line.

But the standard should apply both ways. If a vital area such as Crown prosecution is seriously underpaid by national standards, the compensation should surely be raised.

The government acknowledges that some Crowns, although not all, face a significant pay gap. There seems to be a will to fix that.

But the prosecutors have other problems. In 2017, the UCP, then in opposition, called for an end to triage; the system brought in by the NDP that allows picking and choosing which cases go to trial. Some are never heard because of staff shortages.

And yet, triage still exists under the UCP. The Crowns want it ended. There is also a shortage of security in rural courtrooms, a high level of stress and burnout, and many other problems.

The prosecutors are classified as managers even though, as Sopko says, “95 per cent of our lawyers don’t manage anyone.”

That classification means Crown prosecutors have faced several politically motivated pay freezes. It also keeps them from negotiating with the government. Unlike prosecutors in every other province but Saskatchewan and Prince Edward Island, they do not have collective bargaining rights.

The government’s position seems to be that the Crowns are welcome to join the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees. By law, all units with employees who work for government must bargain through AUPE.

But the lawyers argue persuasively that this would create a conflict of interest.

In trials, prosecutors often call witnesses who work for the government.

   

A courtroom at the Edmonton Law Courts building. 

PHOTO BY JASON FRANSON /The Canadian Press, file

A social worker might testify against an abusive spouse, for instance. The defence could claim that the worker and the Crown prosecutor are in conflict as AUPE members.

The Crowns asked the Labour Relations Board for certification as an independent bargaining unit. They were unsuccessful at the Board and again at Queen’s Bench. The case is now before the Appeal Court, awaiting decision.

The Queen’s Bench judgment rejected the prosecutors’ case on technical grounds, but pointed out that Crowns have their own independent bargaining units in British Columbia, Ontario, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.

About 300 of the province’s Crown lawyers have joined the voluntary ACAA. It has gained informal standing with the government. The mere fact of a meeting with Treasury officials is a big step.

While the union question sorts out, there has to be urgent action on pay, staff shortages, security in rural court, work conditions and triaging.

Government neglect, alternating with occasional action, has allowed problems to fester and grow.

“There has to be some structure in place to prevent standards in the ACPS from slipping while political attention is directed elsewhere,” says Aaron Rankin, secretary of the prosecutors’ association.

“Albertans should be able to count on that.”

Only the criminals would disagree.


Don Braid’s column appears regularly in the Herald.
Twitter: @DonBraid
Facebook: Don Braid Politics

CLASS WAR IN ALBERTA 

Shannon Phillips

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We are in Hour 24 of bill debate. We’re standing up for people’s overtime and for young people’s minimum wage.

Your NDP team will work as long as it takes to stand up for working people. We’re not going to let Jason Kenney pick your pocket or scoop your overtime pay without a fight. #ableg

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