Alberta health-care workers walk off job to protest cuts during pandemic

Smith says nursing care and support workers decided today there was no other option to back their position.

The union represents about 58,000 health-care workers, although it wasn’t immediately clear how many of those workers have walked off the job.

“Across this province, working people are rising up against Jason Kenney’s job-killing policies and are joining the fight in solidarity. This was a decision taken by the members themselves. AUPE is a democratic union and we respect the wishes of our members,” he noted.

Smith says the workers are committed to making sure patients remain safe during any dispute.

“These workers mostly represent laundry and housing keeping, which is environmental services and food services and some of them are from our maintenance department which keeps the buildings running basically,” Bonnie Gostola, AUPE vice president said from the Red Deer picket line. “These are the backbone of health care, these are the people that make sure these rooms are ready for patients and clientele, these are the people that feed those residents and clientele. These are the people that actually keep this facility operating.”

Gostola estimates about 500 such workers are currently employed at Red Deer Regional Hospital, adding that it’s clear the government wants to “Americanize” Alberta’s health care system.

“During the pandemic, which is surging in cases, this was not the time to threaten workers who have already been under threat for over a year now, that their jobs are on the line,” she suggested. “At the end of the day, our members basically have been walking in that door every day for seven months, putting their health and wellness on the line and that of their family’s health and wellness on the line. We’re tired. We’re tired of being put on the front lines and being told that we’re worthless to the system.”

Gostola anticipates the striking employees to be walking the picket line at Red Deer Regional Hospital all day Monday and until the government provides them some sort of sign that they’ll back away from their plans.

In a statement, Alberta Health Services says they are “doing all we can to address any interruptions to patient care caused by this illegal job action. Our focus is on ensuring patients continue to receive the care and treatment they need.”

AHS says they are enacting contingency plans to redeploy non-union staff, including managers, wherever possible to cover for missing staff, and that they are monitoring the situation closely to try to mitigate patient care interruptions.

“However, as a direct result of this illegal job action, some surgeries and ambulatory care clinics are being postponed. Patients will be contacted directly if their appointments are affected,” they explained.

AHS has asked staff to ask them to return to work and have applied to the Labour Relations Board to formally ask the board to direct the affected employees back to work.

Finance Minister Travis Toews said in a statement that the government’s primary concern of ensuring the health and wellbeing of patients has been put at risk by this morning’s strikes.

“My expectation is that all unions respect the bargaining process, stop putting Albertans’ safety at risk and abide by the law,” he said.

by Sheldon Spackman and Troy Gillard

Alberta health-care workers walk off job to protest cuts during pandemic

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