INNISFAIL - Unionized workers recently gathered outside the Innisfail Health Centre to rally support and awareness as bargaining is underway for about 82,000 Alberta Union of Provincial Employees (AUPE) members from a variety of locals and jobs.
Bonnie Gostola, an AUPE vice-president, said the Sept. 25 rally was successful on both accounts.
“We actually had some members of the public come by and bring us some coffee in support. We've had lots of honking going by and actually from groups that you wouldn't think…that are actually starting to recognize that without these public sector workers in this community, the community starts to fail.”
Nearly all AUPE members -- ranging from health care, provincial government services and education to boards and agencies and municipalities -- are in bargaining in 2024.
One group, about 10,000 provincial government workers, is moving towards formal mediation this month.
Collectively, Gostola says groups are asking for wages that would bring them up to par with what the rate of inflation has been.
“Over the last 10 years our members have taken ones and two per cents when the price of inflation has risen 30 per cent over the last 10 years which basically means that we're already 10, 11, 12 per cent behind the rate of inflation,” she said.
“With what the government has proposed and I'm going to say it’s the government because Alberta Health Services, the government of Alberta, almost every education sector, is being mandated by this government on what they can propose and it’s a seven and a half per cent over four years.”
Red Deer Polytechnic and University of Calgary workers are among those in bargaining.
“We find that the government is interfering in all aspects of our bargaining where they can't even agree on a single word because they don't have the permission of the government to actually make any concessions whatsoever,” said Gostola.” So basically coming to the table wasting our time with with no chance of them actually coming to anything that is reasonable or fair.”
Among other issues at play is occupational health and safety with concerns about what changes to Alberta’s Bill of Rights could entail for workers when it comes to vaccinations.
Gostola said Alberta Health Services, for example, has always had policies about what is mandatory for vaccinations including flu shots -- basically anything that that puts public health at risk.
“Yes, AUPE very much stood behind the idea that this is an occupational health and safety issue. It is also an issue that our employers have the right to demand and make mandatory within the policies of their employment,” she said.
While possible amendments to Alberta’s Bill of Rights have yet to be introduced in the legislature, Premier Danielle Smith has said they will reinforce vaccine choice and gun rights among others.
The anti-vaccination movement has called on the premier for protections since before she won the leadership race to replace Jason Kenney as the UCP leader.
Gostola said she thinks Smith is speaking to her “base” on the vaccination issue “maybe basically to keep her job -- it's just wrong on so many levels. She has forgotten that she represents all Albertans not just that select few.”
She called it “absolutely irresponsible” for Alberta’s premier “to basically suggest that they're going to put the wants and needs of a specific sector of our population basically against the other 80 per cent of this province that actually want to be feel safe when they go into their work sites that want to make sure that that we are protected for our very basic needs. Occupational health and safety is a right. It is not a an opt-out situation.”
