Mediation to solve dispute

Miriam Ostermann
Times Associate Editor

 

The Alberta Union of Provincial Employees (AUPE) and AgeCare Sagewood Seniors Community in Strathmore are facing mediation after failing to see eye-to-eye on a fair collective agreement.
One-hundred-and-thirty nursing staff at Sagewood joined AUPE’s many seniors care employees last August, when the workers decided to form a union under the organization. As one of three sites in the province to be organized over the past year, a collective agreement is currently nonexistent.
While the parties have met over the last year, local health-care workers recently held a peaceful rally to stop Sagewood from what they feel is stalling to negotiate a fair agreement. However, Michelle Pham, general manager at Sagewood, said they have a good working relationship with their workers and want to work together with AUPE to come to an agreement – a desire AUPE said they have seen no evidence of.
“They’ve stalled for months; they’ve cancelled many bargaining dates; they failed to disclose relevant bargaining information; and they tabled proposals that fall short of other AgeCare sites and refuse to negotiate compensations with us,” said Erez Raz, vice president for AUPE. “So I don’t know how the employer is saying they’re working together with us. That’s definitely not the case.”
However, according to Sagewood, some progress had been made during the last bargaining meeting by agreeing on some key collective agreement clauses. Sagewood had requested future bargaining dates, but said the union had declined to provide further dates, just before applying for mediation.
A collective agreement would outline terms and conditions of employees and their workplace while meeting industry standards on issues such as wages and compensation. As the AgeCare facility in Lethbridge just signed their collective agreement, AUPE is currently bargaining with four out of their five AgeCare facilities located in Brooks, Medicine Hat, Calgary, and Strathmore.
But according to Pham the process will take time to ensure a balanced agreement, but added both parties are eager to see a respectful contract that meets the needs and obligations of both.
“There are many articles within a collective agreement and I think, at the end of the day, when we have two groups coming together and trying to get each group to agree to each article; it takes time,” Pham said.
“It’s quite ironic, because in the building we have a good relationship with everybody and we’re working well with our team. The team is quite respectful of us and we’re quite respectful of our team.”
AgeCare Sagewood, Strathmore’s supportive living Level 4 and long-term care senior community, set the stage for the May 20 rally that saw roughly 25 individuals participate. AUPE also organized another two rallies, one in Calgary and one in Brooks this month.
AUPE applied to the Alberta Labour Relations Board for mediation assistance that is set to take place on June 18 and 19. If no agreement can be reached, AUPE said the next step would be to file for arbitration.