The Alberta Union of Provincial Employees General Service Bargaining Committee has now spent 13 days of bargaining without seeing meaningful compromise or movement by the Government of Alberta.
The employer has not changed its initial position calling for no pay increases and a freeze on incremental increases through the life of a three-year agreement. The employer also refuses to consider changes to non-monetary portions of the agreement that would help bring it into accord with other similar collective agreements.
As a consequence, the GSBC will schedule town hall meetings in November with AUPE members employed directly by the government to discuss the next moves in this round of bargaining.
The meetings will take place in Lethbridge, Calgary, Red Deer, Edmonton and Grande Prairie on dates and at locations that will be announced as soon as possible. AUPE members should keep their eye on the union’s website — aupe.org — for updates on these important events.
The typical timeframe for resolving a master agreement with the provincial government on behalf of AUPE’s approximately 22,000 direct government employees has historically been 20 to 25 bargaining days. That the union and the government’s bargaining representatives have now had 13 days of face-to-face negotiations without significant movement is strong evidence of the employer’s unwillingness to treat its employees with respect or accept new ideas in the collective agreement that could resolve this impasse.
For example, beyond AUPE’s call for a pay increase of 4 per cent in the first year and 5 per cent in the second year of a two-year agreement, the union has also introduced proposals to address the heavy workloads being experienced by union members. The employer indicates, however, that there will be no significant growth in staffing levels in the Alberta public service.
The employer has made it clear they have no intention of addressing workload issues now or in the foreseeable future and that in their view the public service hiring freeze must continue.
Government negotiators are taking this position despite acknowledgment from the provincial cabinet that government employees are overworked. In a CBC Radio story broadcast Oct. 4, AUPE President Guy Smith stated that “going around the province and talking to staff, the one issue that’s common to all of them is the lack of staffing out there on the front lines.” Treasury Board President Lloyd Snelgrove responded by saying, “I agree with them on that point. I hear that too.”
However, as of now all the employer has been prepared to do is review AUPE’s proposals and ask for clarification on some items.
The situation in bargaining is otherwise unchanged from the circumstances described to direct government employees in its Bargaining Updates on Oct. 1 and Sept. 24.
It remains the view of the GSBC and the leadership of AUPE that the position taken by the employer is not acceptable and that the government must consider real economic conditions in Alberta when negotiating salary levels with its employees, and that it must also consider agreements in other jurisdictions and with other Alberta employers on the form the agreement will ultimately take.
