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 

THE KENNEY EFFECT

Burned out and demoralized: Some Alberta nurses look to leave amid province's bid to cut pay
Jennifer Lee 

© Leah Hennel/AHS A registered nurse and a volunteer with Alberta Health Services sit outside a room on an intensive care unit in May 2021, while family members behind the curtain say their goodbyes to a loved one dying of COVID-19.

After working the front lines through three gruelling waves of the pandemic, and now facing the prospect of pay cuts, some Alberta nurses say they're exhausted, demoralized and looking to get out — prompting concerns about the future of health care in the province.

"It was terrifying. … other people were told to stay home and we were told to go to work," said Edmonton emergency room registered nurse Jessica McGrath, who described facing heartbreaking scenes of patients needing to be intubated, struggling for their lives and dying alone.

"We are the ones that are seeing COVID at its worst."

But as the province emerged from its most recent COVID-19 surge — and negotiations between the United Nurses of Alberta (UNA), Alberta Health Services and Covenant Health resumed — nurses were presented with a three per cent wage rollback proposal. Including other changes, UNA argues it amounts to a five per cent cut.

"That was a huge slap in the face to a lot of us," said McGrath.

All this prompted McGrath to take a temporary one-year position — away from the front lines.

"I've never seen morale this low," she said. "We don't have the same spirit that we used to."
'I've never been more burned out'

McGrath is not alone.

A registered nurse in the emergency department at Edmonton's Royal Alexandra Hospital — which temporarily closed a number of beds recently due to staffing shortages — says she too is looking to get off the front lines.

CBC has agreed to withhold her name because she is concerned about professional repercussions.

"I've worked in this department for close to 15 years and I've never felt so physically and emotionally drained as I do now. I've never been more burned out," she said.

The Edmonton nurse reviews the AHS job board every day, looking for a position outside of the ER.

Senior staff, she said, started leaving her department about a year ago. That intensified when negotiations resumed, punctuated by the proposed wage cut.

"People have even gone into the private sector. People have taken travel nursing contracts. People need out," she said.
Nurses leaving the province

"I've never had so many conversations with my colleagues on the job postings in different provinces," said Christopher Picard, an Edmonton-based registered nurse and spokesperson for the National Emergency Nurses Association of Alberta.

He plans to wait out the negotiations but said a move out of province has been on his mind.

"Having proposed wage cuts brought in after a once in a century pandemic — it does seem like a little bit of a betrayal," he said.

"Are people having these discussions? Yeah. Are people leaving? Yeah."

© CBC Heather Smith, president of the United Nurses of Alberta.

Despite these stories, Premier Jason Kenney refutes the idea that nurses are leaving.

"I wouldn't agree that people would move from Alberta to receive lower pay in other provinces and to pay higher taxes. That wouldn't add up," he said when asked by CBC News on Thursday.

"He's wrong," said Heather Smith, president of the United Nurses of Alberta, the union that represents registered nurses in Alberta.

Some senior nurses have already taken jobs in B.C., according to Smith. Anecdotally, she's heard of nurses leaving for Ontario too, where some hospitals are offering signing bonuses as a recruitment incentive.

"[Alberta nurses] are just not prepared to deal with the kind of disrespect they're feeling here in the province," she said. "They want workplaces that respect them and value [their] contributions … And they're quite prepared to do it in other locations."

The frustration among nurses — who haven't had a raise for five years — is ballooning, according to Smith, who compares today's tensions with the turmoil that led to a strike in 1988 when thousands of nurses walked off the job.

"I haven't seen this kind of anger and demand for action in decades," she said.

According to Smith, there is growing support for a strike which, by law, would require several steps including formal mediation since nurses are deemed essential workers.

She said discussions about non-union-sanctioned wildcat strikes are percolating and UNA is working to set up a day of action in August — along with other health-care unions — including information pickets at hospitals around the province.

"Increasingly there are members saying, 'Why wait?'" said Smith. "But we will do everything we can to attempt to respect the process by law."

Province holds line on wage cuts

Even with the growing unrest, Jason Kenney isn't wavering.

He's made no secret of the fact he wants to balance Alberta's books and that health-care spending, which accounts for nearly 45 per cent of the provincial budget, is a prime target.

Kenney said he appreciates the hard work of nurses through the pandemic and repeated his government's stance that Alberta nurses receive on average 5.6 per cent higher compensation than those in the rest of Canada.

"Alberta has a $16-billion deficit. We've been running massive deficits for a decade. We cannot continue to do that indefinitely," he said. "This government, at least, is not going to raise taxes to punish people who've already been hurting in the private sector — so we have to learn how to operate a little more efficiently. And that's the basis of our initial position in the collective bargaining agreement."
Government actions seen as 'needlessly aggressive'

Kenney's tactics could be seen as "needlessly aggressive" at a time when support for Alberta health-care workers has skyrocketed due to the pandemic, according to Lori Williams, associate professor of policy studies at Mount Royal University.

"It looks to me like there's a lot more support for health-care workers in general than there is for the government's response to health-care workers," said Williams, pointing to the acrimonious relationship with Alberta doctors after the province tore up their master agreement last year and announced a plan last fall to lay off many as 11,000 AHS employees and outsource their jobs to private companies.

The Alberta Union of Provincial Employees (AUPE) recently went back to the bargaining table too and was presented with a wage cut proposal of its own: four per cent for general support workers.

"The government keeps saying that it appreciates the sacrifices that were made by front-line health-care workers, but doesn't indicate that by their actions," said Williams.

Kenney's methods are strikingly reminiscent of the deep health-care cuts levelled by Premier Ralph Klein during the 1990s, according to Lorian Hardcastle, associate professor specializing in health law and policy at the University of Calgary.

"I think when you cut too quickly and too deeply, you risk really destabilizing the healthcare system," said Hardcastle. "That's what we saw during the Klein years and it took subsequent governments years to rebuild that health workforce, to rebuild that health-care system. And I think we may be putting ourselves in a difficult position right now."

If the Kenney government holds the line on wage cuts for nurses, Hardcastle said the relationship between the two sides will likely grow more acrimonious and it could have lasting effects on a system already battling staffing shortages and bed closures.

"Not only will there be disruption in the short term, but [there] could be longer-term problems with recruitment and retention that affect the health-care system for many years. And that can play out in terms of longer wait times for surgeries … it can result in more hallway medicine," she said.

"And that's the sort of thing that it takes a long time to recover from and rebuild."

BULLSHIT

Offer to health support workers 'fair, reasonable' in light of fiscal problems, finance minister says

FIRST THEY CONTRACT OUT THEIR JOBS THEN CUT THEIR WAGES
AUPE says government negotiators want 4 per cent pay cut

Michelle Bellefontaine · CBC News · Posted: Jul 16, 2021

 
UNA and AUPE members protested possible health care cuts and privatization at rallies across Alberta last year. (Trevor Wilson/CBC)


Alberta Finance Minster Travis Toews is defending his government's offer to health care support workers as fair and reasonable, while the union calls it disrespectful to the people who have kept hospitals functioning during the pandemic.


The Alberta Union of Provincial Employees said Alberta Health Services negotiators have tabled an offer of a four per cent wage rollback for one year, followed by three years of zero increases in the latest round of contract talks.

Toews says AUPE was asking for a five per cent increase in salaries over the next two years, which he said is an increase of $105 million. He said Alberta can't afford wage increases while it faces down $93 billion in debt. 

Alberta finance minister pushes salary rollback for nurses

"Our proposal is fair, reasonable, and in the best interest of all Albertans," Toews said in a news release Friday.

"AHS is offering job security to employees in exchange for the one-time wage reduction. This is a fair and equitable trade."

AUPE vice-president Susan Slade said the offer is disrespectful to the cleaning, laundry and food services staff who kept hospitals functioning during the pandemic. She said workers in the General Support Services unit are among the lowest paid health care workers.

"It's absolutely shameful that this government thinks that this is an appropriate thing to do after given the amount of hard work that everybody has done this last 16 months in this pandemic," Slade said in an interview with CBC News.

"Members are rightfully angry. They're disappointed."

The government's latest offer to AUPE comes less than two weeks after government negotiators tabled an offer to Alberta nurses that would force them to take a three per cent salary rollback.

NDP health critic David Shepherd said Premier Jason Kenney is trying to balance his budget on the back of health care workers. The Edmonton-Centre MLA said Kenney has spent millions on the Canadian Energy Centre, commonly known as the war room, and lost $1.3 billion of taxpayer money in the cancelled Keystone XL project.

"The premier has many, many areas where he has chosen to gamble and waste Alberta's tax dollars," Shepherd said.

"For him then to turn to our frontline health care workers who got us through this pandemic and say, you are going to pay for my mistakes and to try to attack and vilify them. It's unacceptable."

Emergency rooms and hospitals across the province are facing bed closures due to staffing shortages.

Alberta Health Services confirmed that 18 spaces at the Royal Alexandra Hospital emergency department were closed for four hours early Friday morning.

Twelve beds reopened at 7 a.m., leaving six beds closed due to "short-term staffing coverage issues," the health authority said via its Twitter account.

At an unrelated news conference earlier on Friday, Health Minister Tyler Shandro said Alberta's situation isn't any different from the pressures faced by health care systems in Canada and across the world due to COVID-19.

Toews calls proposed cuts to health-care workers' salaries 'reasonable'
Author of the article:Ashley Joannou
Publishing date:Jul 16, 2021 • 

Alberta Finance Minister Travis Toews delivers the 2021 provincial budget at the Alberta legislature in Edmonton on Thursday, Feb. 25, 2021. 

PHOTO BY DAVID BLOOM /Postmedia


Alberta Finance Minister Travis Toews is defending a proposal to cut the salaries of health-care staff, including cleaning, laundry and lab workers, saying it is reasonable and in the best interest of Albertans.

On Thursday, the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees (AUPE) said the government was proposing a four per cent wage cut for its general support services workers effective immediately after a new agreement is ratified, followed by a three-year wage freeze.

In a statement Friday, Toews said the government has to keep spending under control when the province is facing $93 billion in debt. He said Albertans pay more than most Canadians for public services including health care.

“Our proposal is fair, reasonable, and in the best interest of all Albertans. AHS is offering job security to employees in exchange for the one-time wage reduction. This is a fair and equitable trade,” he said.

“AHS is meeting with AUPE later today to continue negotiations. I’m confident both parties can work together to reach a fair and equitable settlement that respects the fiscal situation of the province.”

AUPE vice-president Susan Slade confirmed in an interview Friday that the union’s current proposal would maintain the status quo during Year 1 followed by a 2.5 per cent salary increase in each of years 2 and 3.

AHS initially proposed a one-per cent cut in February 2020 but contract talks were stalled amid the pandemic.

Slade the one per cent cut would have taken back an increase received through arbitration and that there have been very little increases in these employees’ salaries the last five years.

“I think given the fact that these employees have been working for the last 16 months in horrible conditions given the pandemic, him asking for a four per cent decrease is extremely shameful, disrespectful and unreasonable,” she said.

The government’s latest offer to AUPE comes after negotiators offered Alberta nurses a three per cent salary rollback as part of their latest round of contract talks.

Toews said the United Nurses of Alberta want a four per cent raise over two years.

At a press conference Friday, NDP health critic David Shepherd said the burnout and low morale staff are feeling from COVID-19 is being worsened by the suggestion of wage rollbacks.

Shepherd said that if the province wanted to save money it could choose not to fund the government’s energy war room or could have decided not to spend $1.3 billion on the now-cancelled Keystone XL pipeline.

He said the government needs to recognize the pressure health-care workers are facing and “start negotiating respectfully and bring forward a plan to address critical staffing shortages.”

The province continues to face bed closures due to staffing shortages at both rural and urban hospitals.

AHS said six of 50 emergency room beds are temporarily closed due to staffing issues at the Royal Alexandra Hospital. Another 12 were closed for four hours Friday morning. Those 12 reopened at 7 a.m.

At an unrelated event on Friday, Health Minister Tyler Shandro said similar pressures are being faced by health-care systems in Canada and across the world because of COVID-19.

“AHS has done an amazing job for a year and a half, they continue to do it, to make sure that people are going to get the care that they need,” he said.

“Sometimes that means making dynamic decisions and responding to pressures on human resources or equipment issues because they’re doing the right things to make sure that people are getting the care that they need.”

ajoannou@postmedia.com

twitter.com/ashleyjoannou

Fort Saskatchewan Correctional Centre workers seek third-party review of 'toxic' workplace

Jonny Wakefield 

4/21/2021

© Provided by Edmonton Journal Exterior of the Fort Saskatchewan Correctional Centre.

Staff at Fort Saskatchewan Correctional Centre are demanding an independent review after a survey found most employees feel their workplace is “toxic.”

Seventy per cent of respondents to a recent survey reported feeling bullied at work, according to results released Wednesday by the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees (AUPE).

Eighty-five per cent said the work environment has taken a toll on their mental health, while around 75 per cent reported negative consequences to their physical health. More than half believed managers would retaliate if they raised concerns.

Ninety-five per cent of employees want the provincial government to order a third-party review of the workplace, AUPE said in a news release, saying relations between managers and staff have broken down.

“It’s a very hard job,” said Susan Slade, AUPE vice-president. “And it’s a very trying job, dealing with, you know, criminals. But at the end of the day, you should still be able to have a healthy work environment.”

FSCC was built in 1988 . It can house 546 prisoners , including pretrial inmates and those serving sentences. It has averaged fewer than 300 inmates during the COVID-19 pandemic.

AUPE represents the majority of workers at the facility, including correctional officers, licensed practical nurses and administrative staff. Around 80 per cent filled out the AUPE survey.

Slade said the current issues go back at least five years. In October, staff presented managers with a list of issues, but were “brushed off.”

“(Staff) feel that management just doesn’t want to listen,” said Slade.

The pandemic has increased tensions. In December, correctional peace officer Roger Maxwell died of COVID-19. Slade said his passing is now considered a workplace death. Forty-seven per cent of respondents said the centre’s COVID response was among their biggest concerns, “second only to the issue of bullying, harassment, and intimidation,” AUPE spokesman Jon Milton said.
Other jails flagged after ‘toxic’ workplace complaints

FSCC is the latest Edmonton-area correctional facility to report toxic workplace concerns.

In 2019, the province released the results of an independent workplace review of the Edmonton Remand Centre (ERC), which compared the workplace culture to a “high school” riven with cliques, bullying and immature behaviour.

In response to the report, then-Justice Minister Doug Schweitzer announced unspecified “staffing changes” at the management level.

The federal, maximum-security Edmonton Institution, meanwhile, has long been plagued by complaints about the workplace culture.

In 2019, Postmedia obtained a workplace review which found numerous allegations of sexual assault and harassment involving co-workers at Edmonton Institution. Canada’s correctional investigator has repeatedly highlighted bullying, harassment and intimidation issues at Edmonton Institution, which fired, suspended or forced out 11 staffers in 2018.

Slade said the ERC review resulted in positive changes, but stressed that the workplace is still “not a perfect scenario or anything like that.” She hopes to see similar action at Fort Saskatchewan.

In a statement, justice ministry spokeswoman Katherine Thompson said the government “takes concerns about workplace culture very seriously, and that is why plans continue to be developed to enhance collaboration and the workplace culture among the staff and leadership at Fort Saskatchewan Correctional Centre.”

“Management or staff who don’t support a professional and respectful work environment are not meeting expectations, whether those of their colleagues, this department, or Albertans at large,” she added.

Slade said correctional facilities should not be inherently toxic workplaces.

“We need to stop that kind of culture, and we need to stop that kind of (belief), that it’s OK to not feel mentally healthy because you work in corrections,” she said.

jwakefield@postmedia.com

twitter.com/jonnywakefield

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UCP has essentially seized control of all public-sector pension plans in the province

JANUARY 14, 2021

And they’re coming for the retirement nest eggs saved by Albertans through the Canada Pension Plan, too

EDMONTON - The presidents of the Alberta Federation of Labour (AFL) and Alberta’s largest public-sector unions held a news conference today to condemn the latest actions taken by the Kenney government to effectively seize control of pension savings belonging to hundreds of thousands of Albertans.

“It’s not just the teachers’ pension plan that’s subject to the new terms imposed by the Finance Minister. They’re also going after the pensions of hundreds of thousands of Albertans working for Alberta Health Services, school boards, municipalities, the provincial government and universities and colleges,” said AFL president, Gil McGowan. “What’s happening is unprecedented, outrageous and brazen.”

The leaders at the news conference included McGowan, Guy Smith, president of the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees (AUPE); Heather Smith, president of the United Nurses of Alberta (UNA); Mike Parker, president of the Health Sciences Association of Alberta (HSAA); and Rory Gill, president of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, Alberta Division (CUPE).

The leaders say that Ministerial Orders issued on January 4th by Alberta’s Finance Minister are essentially designed to finish the work that the government started in the fall of 2019 with the passage of Bill 22.

Bill 22 stripped all of Alberta’s public-sector pension boards of the power to choose who would manage their investments, decreeing that AIMCo – an agency that is wholly owned and controlled by the government – will be the sole monopoly provider of investment services.

What’s significant about the new Ministerial Orders is that they build on the power and control already granted by the government to AIMCo at the expense of the pension boards.

“Now, as a result of these orders, not only will AIMCo be the monopoly provider of investment management services, they will also be able to ignore the wishes of the pension plans when it comes to decisions about how the retirement savings of workers and retirees should be invested,” said McGowan.

“In other words, AIMCo and the Finance Minister will be the deciders – and the hundreds of employers and hundreds of thousands of workers who actually pay into the plans will simply have to shut up, take what they’re given and trust that the government and AIMCo will do what’s best. This paternalistic approach is entirely at odds with industry norms and with the way pensions are managed in other provinces.”

The union presidents say this is “perverse” because the money in question – more than $100 billion – doesn’t belong to the government or to AIMCo. It belongs to the more than 400,000 Albertans who have been using Alberta’s public plans, as vehicles, to save for their retirements.

“With Bill 22 and these Ministerial Orders, the Kenney government has essentially seized control of vast sums of money that is not theirs. The Finance Minister and the Premier might call this administrative reform. We call it theft,” said McGowan.

The big question is: why is the Kenney government doing this? The union leaders think they have an answer.

“We think Jason Kenney’s end game is to use the retirement savings of hundreds of thousands of Albertan to prop up oil and gas ventures in the province that are having an increasingly difficult time raising money from global investors and international markets,” said McGowan. “To be clear: we are not opposed to all oil and gas investments. What we ARE opposed to is a system in which the government gives itself the power to invest other people’s money in risky ventures without their permission.”

The union leaders said they will respond to the UCP’s “pension theft” with a legal challenge and an aggressive member campaign to pressure MLAs. They will also campaign against government efforts to pull Alberta out of the Canada Pension Plan (CPP).

“We think what we’re witnessing with these ministerial orders is just part of Jason Kenney’s grand vision. We think the UCP is also set on seizing the retirement money that all Albertans save through CPP and handing it over to AIMCo under similar terms that have now been imposed on public-sector pension plans.”

A full copy of McGowan’s remarks can be found here.

-30-

UCP KILLS HEALTHCARE WORKER 
Alberta has lost its first health-care worker to COVID-19, and recorded 96 fatalities over the past five days

.

© Provided by Edmonton Journal Alberta Health Minister Tyler Shandro.

Health Minister Tyler Shandro announced the death in an email statement Monday afternoon, saying he was deeply saddened to learn of it.

“Health-care workers are doing all they can to protect the people they care for, their co-workers, and themselves,” said Shandro. “The dedication and remarkable commitment I’ve witnessed from health-care workers throughout the pandemic has never wavered — you have stepped up for this province in a time of need.”

The Alberta Union of Provincial Employees identified the worker as 61-year-old Joe Marie (Jing) Corral. Corral was a health care aide at the Bethany Riverview continuing care facility in Calgary.

“It’s always hard to lose a loved one, but it seems even harder over the holidays when we are so focused on family and friends. AUPE is a community of colleagues and we all send our condolences to the family, said AUPE vice-president Bobby-Joe Borodey.

Mike Parker, president of the Health Sciences Associations of Alberta, said news of Corral’s death was a blow to his membership.

“Our folks are heading into work every single day and this heartbreaking news that’s coming out now, at a time when we don’t have the vaccines being rolled out when our members are not getting the protections that they need from from the rollout of the vaccines, it is really, really tough to hear,” said Parker.

Alberta Health Services spokesman Kerry Williamson said the worker was not an AHS employee but their hearts go out to their loved ones and colleagues.

“Losing a fellow health-care worker impacts us all — this person is a colleague, and we think of them as part of our healthcare family,” said Williamson in an email. “Health-care workers across the province have been working tirelessly to take care of Albertans, and we are so grateful for their commitment and their dedication.”

Data provided online by the government shows 6,426 cases of COVID-19 in health-care workers have been reported since the pandemic began.

Following Shandro’s statement, Alberta Health spokesman Tom McMillan announced 96 people have died with COVID-19 over the past five days, including 54 in the Edmonton Zone. The latest online update is the first since Dec. 30.

A total of 1,142 Albertans have died from COVID-19 since March.

© Provided by Edmonton Journal

On Dec. 30, 1,226 new cases were identified across Alberta while 1,361, 933, 459 and 1,128 cases were recorded on Dec. 31, Jan. 1, Jan. 2 and Jan. 3, respectively. Fewer tests were completed on Jan. 1 and Jan. 2 than on the other three days.

Returning from the new year break, active cases and hospitalizations have dropped since the end of December but so did the number of completed tests. There are currently 13,839 active infections in Alberta, down from 14,555 on Dec. 29.

The number of Albertans getting treatment in hospital has also dropped as there are 905 COVID-19 patients across the province, including 136 in intensive care. On Dec. 29 there were 921 people in hospital, including 152 in intensive care.

Data shows the provincial R value, or the rate at which the virus is spreading, was 0.99 between Dec. 28 and Jan. 3. The Edmonton Zone’s R value was 0.93 during that time frame.

An R value of one typically means that an infected individual will infect one other person. Premier Jason Kenney has previously stated he wants to see the provincial value drop below one, ideally to 0.8.

© Provided by Edmonton Journal

Solidarity rallies for health-care workers bring out support in Calgary, Edmonton

© Mike Symington/CBC 

Supporters gathered in front of the Foothills Medical Centre at 6:30 a.m. on Thursday.

Several rallies were held across Alberta on Thursday morning to show solidarity for health-care workers who walked off the job last week to protest the provincial government's announcement it would outsource thousands of jobs.

On Oct. 26, hundreds of health-care workers engaged in a wildcat strike after Alberta's Minister of Health Tyler Shandro announced that Alberta Health Services would lay off between 9,700 and 11,000 employees.

They were swiftly ordered back to work by the Alberta Labour Relations Board.

On Oct. 27, Finance Minister Travis Toews told reporters that nursing and support workers who participated in the strike could be fined, suspended or even fired from their jobs.

On Thursday, supporters gathered in front of the Foothills Medical Centre and the Sheldon M. Chumir Health Centre in Calgary, and Edmonton's University of Alberta Hospital, to show their support for the front-line workers.

"We [are here] to thank all of the brave members that walked out on Oct. 26," said Bobby-Joe Borodey, one of the vice-presidents of the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees (AUPE) — the union that represents the health-care workers — at the rally in front of the Foothills hospital.

"We did that to send a message to [Premier] Jason Kenney and the UCP government that this direction that they're heading in with privatization is awful, and it's something that Albertans don't want."
'Make no mistake, they're all front-line workers'

Unions representing Alberta's health-care workers told CBC Edmonton in mid-October that there would be major labour strife if the government follows through on the proposed restructuring plan underpinned by thousands of layoffs.

Most of those who will lose their jobs work in laboratory, linen, cleaning and in-patient food services with AHS, and their positions will be outsourced to private companies.

According to Borodey, there is no overstating the value of their work during COVID-19.

"Make no mistake, they're all front-line workers," Borodey said. "When this pandemic started, they were the heroes that were on the front-line — the first line of defence at keeping Albertans safe at hospitals and health centres across the province.

"And then, when we're in month eight, all of a sudden, they're zeroes. And they're overpaid and replaceable. So, they're feeling pretty deflated and frustrated."

© Mike Symington/CBC Calgary

 'We're in the same risk as these guys. It's high-stress. It takes a lot of dedication, it takes a lot of courage to go to work every day. And then to have the employer treat you with such disregard, it's, you know, it's demoralizing,' Mike Mahar said.

Mike Mahar, the Canadian director of the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU), said that as fellow essential workers, the ATU wanted to attend the rally at the Foothills show its support.

Mahar, who had strong words for the provincial government, said transit workers understand the intense pressure of working the front-lines during the pandemic.

"We're in the same risk as these guys. It's high-stress. It takes a lot of dedication, it takes a lot of courage to go to work every day. And then to have the employer treat you with such disregard, it's, you know, it's demoralizing," Mahar said.

"To have the carpet pulled out from under you like that, during a pandemic — it's actually reckless. I think it's criminal. Not just putting those people out of work, but doing it right now … it's going to cost people's lives, I bet."

NDP MLA David Shepherd, who also attended the rally at the Foothills, said he is receiving hundreds of emails from people who are tired of the attacks on health-care staff.

"[The UCP government] announced this as our province is entering into the second wave of COVID-19. It's absolutely unacceptable," Shepherd said.

CBC News asked the Alberta government for comment on the rallies but it has not yet responded.

However, in October, Shandro said the cuts are eventually expected to save up to $600 million annually, and there will be a "long-term and gradual" implementation of the plan.

Alberta health staff return to work, surgeries resume after one-day walkout

EDMONTON — Hospital and health-care workers who staged a one-day illegal walkout returned to work Tuesday while politicians swapped recriminations and accusations in the house over the dispute.

Alberta Health Services reported no service disruptions and a return to scheduled surgeries one day after hundreds of workers, including aides and support staff, walked off the job at about 30 sites throughout the province, including hospitals in Edmonton and Calgary.

Late Monday night, the Alberta Labour Relations Board ruled the job action illegal and the workers’ union, the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees, said it would urge staffers to return to work.

They had walked out to protest plans announced earlier this month by the United Conservative government to eliminate 11,000 jobs and privatize more lab and laundry services to save money. Health Minister Tyler Shandro had said nursing and other front-line clinical staff would not be affected.

The AUPE represents about 58,000 health care workers.

AHS estimated 157 non-emergency surgeries, most of them in Edmonton, had to be postponed as a result of the walkout. That is on top of the elective surgeries postponed in Edmonton last week due to strain on the system caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

In the legislature, the Opposition NDP critic Janis Irwin accused Shandro of shabbily treating critical front-line workers.

“These folks put their lives on the line to serve Albertans, and they deserve our respect and dignity, not your government’s constant attacks,” Irwin told the house during question period.

“What message do you have for these dedicated workers?”

Shandro replied, “This is pure hypocrisy from the NDP.

“We are doing what exactly the NDP did. They had 68 per cent of laundry jobs throughout the province contracted out in Calgary and Edmonton. BULLSHIT THAT WAS DONE BY THE PREVIOUS UCP GOVERNMENT WHEN IT WAS THE PC PARTY UNDER KLEIN

“The NDP are not fighting for patients. They’re not fighting for the workers either. They’re fighting for the six-figure salaries of their union bosses.”

NDP Leader Rachel Notley said her party did not initiate any privatization of those health services during its previous four years in government.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 27, 2020.

Alberta health-care workers could face sanctions for wildcat strike
Janet French CBC

© Scott Neufeld/CBC Alberta Finance Minister Travis Toews said Alberta Health Services will investigate workers who participated in a wildcat strike on Monday.

Alberta Health Services (AHS) is considering "disciplinary options" for unionized health-care workers who walked off the job earlier this week.

Nursing and support workers who participated in Monday's wildcat strike could be fined, suspended or even fired from their jobs, Finance Minister Travis Toews told reporters at the legislature on Tuesday. 

"They're looking at individual employee actions, individual employees who took part in the illegal walkout," Toews said

Next steps could include reporting any regulated workers to disciplinary bodies for professional sanctions, he said.

Working conditions and the Alberta government's move to outsource up to 11,000 jobs prompted the job action.

On Monday night, the Alberta Labour Relations Board declared the workers' walkout to be an illegal strike.

Although the board cited no wrongdoing by their union, the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees (AUPE), Toews said AHS will ask the board to investigate whether union leaders were involved in organizing the strike.

"Just from information in the public realm, it would appear that union leaders were instrumental, or certainly there was a high degree of possibility that union leaders were instrumental in the activities," Toews said.

Although he wouldn't point to specific evidence, Toews said social media posts, news reports and information received by his office suggest leaders were involved in organizing the walkout.

AUPE issued a short statement Tuesday, saying leaders can't comment on AHS's labour board complaint. Moves to investigate individual employees may prompt the union to file grievances against the employer, the statement said.

On Monday, AUPE President Guy Smith said the walkout was led by workers, not union officials.

"We know that your employer's going to react very strongly to what you're up to today," Smith said over a megaphone Monday to workers rallying outside Edmonton's Royal Alexandra Hospital. "They're going to try and bully you and intimidate you to not be out here. If you stick together and stay strong, nothing can overcome the power of workers standing together — remember that."
Opposition calls move a 'witch hunt'

AHS said the organization is reviewing Monday's events and considering next steps including possible disciplinary options and consequences.

"That process could take some time to ensure we complete a thorough review and investigation," spokesperson Kerry Williamson said in an email.

He did not say how many workers AHS was investigating or how long it would take.

© Scott Neufeld/CBC Alberta NDP leader Rachel Notley said the government should be trying to reach a truce with health-care workers rather than investigating them for potential wrongdoing.

Opposition NDP leader Rachel Notley said the move is a continuation of the UCP government's attack on health-care workers.

"If the finance minister insists upon engaging in a witch hunt against regular, hard-working frontline workers in the middle of a pandemic it will show us that they have learned nothing from yesterday," Notley said on Tuesday. "What they must absolutely do is declare a truce."

The government has said outsourcing up to 11,000 health-care jobs such as cleaners, laundry and food service workers, porters and others could save up to $600 million a year. Two-thirds of health-care centre laundry across the province is already handled by private contractors.

The NDP disputes the estimated cost savings of outsourcing. Notley said the government expects low-wage health-care workers, many of whom are women of colour, to cheerfully report to high-risk jobs during the COVID-19 pandemic while waiting for pink slips.

"On what planet does this look even a little bit like basic common sense and humanity?" Notley said.

AHS workers' wildcat strike declared illegal by Alberta Labour Relations Board

Ashley Joannou , Anna Junker EDMONTON JOURNAL

© Provided by Edmonton Journal Waving to passing motorists, health-care workers walked off the the job outside the Royal Alexandra Hospital joining others at various health care locations across Alberta on Monday, Oct. 26, 2020.

The Alberta Labour Relations Board has ruled that health-care workers who walked off the job Monday were engaged in an illegal strike.

In the decision released Monday night, the board said the workers must return to work at their scheduled shifts.

The orders from the board will be filed with the Court of Queen’s Bench, meaning anyone who breaks them could face civil or criminal penalties.

The Alberta Union of Provincial Employees (AUPE), which represents the workers, said healthcare workers would return to work on Tuesday.

“AUPE members won support from across Alberta for their heroic stand, and proved once and for all that healthcare staff is more than doctors and nurses,” the union said in a statement late Monday.

In a statement issued following the decision, Finance Minister Travis Toews said he was pleased by the decision.

“Albertans should be able to rely on their health-care system with services delivered uninterrupted — no matter the circumstance,” he said.

“Going forward we expect that all unions respect the bargaining process and stop putting Albertans’ safety at risk. We will not tolerate illegal strike activity.”

General support health-care workers, licensed practical nurses and health-care aides across Alberta went on a wildcat strike Monday morning to call on the government to hire more staff and reverse the decision announced by Health Minister Tyler Shandro earlier this month to cut 11,000 jobs, including laundry services and lab work, mostly through outsourcing to third-party companies.

A wildcat strike is action taken by unionized workers without authorization from union leadership.

In a morning statement, Alberta Health Services (AHS) called the job action illegal. At a 4 p.m. emergency hearing, AHS formally asked the ALRB to direct employees back to work.

Arguments at the hearing centred around how big the walkout actually was and whether the AUPE was involved as an organization and could be held accountable.

AHS lawyers argued that the union was “reckless” for engaging in this type of behaviour during a pandemic and asked that the action be declared unlawful, the union and its members be ordered to cease and desist and the union make “every reasonable effort” to bring the strike to a close.

For AUPE’s part, the lawyer representing the union argued that while some members were not at work when they should have been, there was limited evidence that AUPE as an entity was involved and weak evidence around exactly how many employees were scheduled to work and were instead picketing.

In the final decision, the cease and desist order was made against the employees without mentioning the union.

Health-care workers have walked off the job this morning. A sizeable group is outside the Royal Alex and getting lots of honks of support from passing vehicles #yeg #ableg #abhealtb #abpoli pic.twitter.com/aADq08jdMi— Anna Junker 🔮 (@JunkerAnna) October 26, 2020
‘We’re not going to stand for being ripped apart and discarded, like Kleenex’

Speaking outside the Royal Alexandra Hospital on Monday morning, AUPE president Guy Smith said the strike was grassroots and spontaneous.

“The anger and the frustration that’s been building up for over a year was really set to light by that (job cuts announcement) two weeks ago,” said Smith.

The AUPE represents about 58,000 health-care workers, although it was not known exactly how many walked off the job or picketed.

Workers went on strike at the Royal Alexandra Hospital, the University of Alberta Hospital, Glenrose Hospital and Alberta Hospital in Edmonton, Foothills Hospital, South Health Campus and Peter Lougheed Centre in Calgary, Red Deer Regional Hospital, and in Athabasca, Westlock, Lethbridge, Whitecourt, Cold Lake, Peace River, Leduc, Westview and Fort Saskatchewan.

By Monday afternoon, the crowd outside the Royal Alexandra had swelled to a few hundred, including representatives of other health-care and non-health-care unions.

The Health Sciences Association of Alberta, which represents 27,000 health-care professionals, and the United Nurses of Alberta had said in separate statements that their members wouldn’t do the work of other union members. The Alberta Federation of Labour and its affiliated unions said they would join picket lines to show support.

Heather Smith, president of the UNA, said there has been “extreme unhappiness” within the health-care system for a long time.

“You can’t continue to beat people and expect that they’re just going to take it,” she said.

“It’s time this government recognize that we are a family of providers, and we don’t like being ripped apart, we’re not going to stand for being ripped apart and discarded, like Kleenex, we are not disposable as a workforce.”

Colleen Buzikevich, an environmental service worker who does housekeeping at the Royal Alexandra and was picketing outside the hospital Monday morning, said hearing about the job cuts was devastating.

“It was it was like a hot knife right through the heart,” Buzikevich said. “We’re fighting for our livelihood. We have families to support, we have spouses, people have kids. It’s that’s how you pay for food on your table and that’s being taken away from us. It feels like the rug is being pulled out from under us.”

By 8:30 p.m., just before the decision was released, picketers had left the Royal Alexandra and U of A hospitals.

© Ed Kaiser An ambulance on a call passes health-care workers who have walked off the the job outside the Royal Alexandra Hospital joining others at various health care locations across Alberta on Monday, Oct. 26, 2020. Ed Kaiser/Postmedia

Non-emergency surgeries postponed across the province

Earlier in the day, AHS said it was taking steps to address interruptions to patient care, including redeploying non-union staff wherever possible.

As a result of the job action, AHS spokesperson Kerry Williamson said non-emergency surgeries had been postponed across the province. The procedures were halted in the Edmonton Zone last week due to capacity issues because of COVID-19

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© Ed Kaiser Health-care workers walked off the the job outside the Royal Alexandra Hospital joining others at various health care locations across Alberta on Monday, Oct. 26, 2020.

NDP Opposition Leader Rachel Notley called the strike action “deeply concerning” and said the province’s plan to privatize jobs will result in poorer health care.

“The UCP must stop this deliberate attack on public health care and get back to the table with frontline health-care heroes,” Notley said in a statement.

Smith said he’s had working relationships with previous premiers, but with Premier Jason Kenney there is “no relationship.”

“The fact that we haven’t been able to have that, build that relationship with this government, means that it could be harder to get to those discussion points,” Smith said. “We know we’re going to be at loggerheads, but we’re at a crisis point right now and we’re willing to help resolve that if the government is.”

With files from Lisa Johnson and The Canadian Press

© Anna Junker AUPE health-care workers walk off the job and picket outside the Royal Alexandra Hospital on Monday, Oct. 26, 2020

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© Anna Junker AUPE president Guy Smith addresses media after AUPE health-care workers walk off the job and picket outside the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Edmonton on Monday, Oct. 26, 2020.

© Anna Junker AUPE health-care workers walk off the job and picket outside the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Edmonton on Monday, Oct. 26, 2020.

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aupe strike 2020 on Twitter

https://twitter.com/search/aupe+strike+2020

Mark Villani
@CTVMarkVillani

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A couple dozen healthcare workers are still here protesting in front of the Foothills Medical Centre. The group with AUPE says wildcat strike not a one day event.. they want UCP gov to reverse recent 11,000 healthcare job cuts. #yyc @CTVCalgary More: edmonton.ctvnews.ca/mob…

Twitter · 29 mins ago

Global Calgary
@GlobalCalgary

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AHS says it is “responding quickly to illegal strike action” taken by AUPE members, but adds "some surgeries and ambulatory care clinics are being postponed." trib.al/1VUf03o

Twitter · 34 mins ago

Matt Wolf
@MattWolfAB

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In responding to this morning's illegal AUPE wildcat strike, glad to see Rachel Notley emphasize that "our caucus believes patient safety must always be the top priority." #ableg

Twitter · 47 mins ago

Hal Roberts 🇨🇦
@Hal__Roberts

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AUPE launching rotating wildcat strikes at various locations across the province. Union president, Guy Smith, says it’s in relation to 11K healthcare job cuts from UCP during a pandemic. #abpoli

Twitter · 1 hour ago

Alberta Health Services
@AHS_media

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AHS is responding quickly to illegal strike action by Alberta Union of Provincial Employees staff at various sites across the province.

Twitter · 1 hour ago

Red Deer Advocate
@RedDeerAdvocate

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#AUPE protest outside #reddeer hospital

Twitter · 2 hours ago

Edmonton Journal
@edmontonjournal

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AUPE president Guy Smith spoke outside the Royal Alexandra Hospital Monday morning and said there is no timeline for how long the "wildcat" strike will last. "... when you throw fuel on the fire you’re going to get burned.” #abhealth #yeg edmontonjournal.com/new…

Twitter · 2 hours ago

Edmonton Sun
@Edmontonsun

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Alberta health-care workers walk off the job: AUPE Guy Smith, president of the AUPE, referred to the strike as a "wildcat strike." #yeg #ABhealth edmontonsun.com/news/lo…

Twitter · 2 hours ago

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