June 22, 1998
CONTRACT PRAISED
More than 2,000 support staff at Foothills and Alberta Children's hospitals are expected to vote on the deal over the next two weeks -- a deal their union president praised last night. "It's the best collective agreement I've seen in years in Calgary," said Dan MacLennan of the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees. "Overall, it meets the Edmonton agreement (reached by support staff there) and in many areas exceeds it." About 700 union members met at the U of C last night to give their blessing to the vote, but not all of them were ready to endorse the deal. Some staff members who are already on a higher pay scale will receive no increase. Licensed practical nurses were especially slow to embrace it. "I'd definitely go on strike, but I don't know if we have the support of everyone in the union," said Jacquelyn Marshall, an LPN at Foothills. Calgary Regional Health Authority officials were poised with contingency plans designed to handle an illegal strike as early as this morning if workers rejected the pact. "Our contingency plan has been in effect since Friday -- we are prepared," John King, the CRHA's senior officer for acute care, said before the AUPE meeting. Senior management had been cancelling elective surgeries and discharging as many people as it could at the Foothills and Alberta Children's hospitals since the strike threat by Alberta Union of Provincial Employees members materialized last week. A CRHA spokesman said last night's union decisions bode well for a non-strike resolution to the dispute. "The settlement obviously didn't meet everybody's needs...(but) it appears we'll come to an agreement," said Al Martin, a member of the CRHA's bargaining team. "For now, it will be business as usual." Officials were prepared to cancel 40 elective surgeries scheduled for today if a strike had gone ahead. FAST FACTS * What support staff do: Housekeeping, processing and sterilization, maintenance and trades, food and nutrition, admitting, auxiliary nursing, moving patients and phone operations. * NUMBERS: Alberta Union of Public Employees locals 40, 55 represent 2,100 at Foothills Hospital and 415 at Alberta Children's Hospital. * QUOTED: "It's the best collective agreement I've seen in years in Calgary. Overall, it meets the Edmonton agreement (reached by support staff there) and in many areas exceeds it." -- Dan MacLennan, AUPE Next Story: GATES WORTH $51 BILLION Previous Story: DEALS WILL FLOW LIKE OIL
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