Alberta health-care workers rally for raises outside Good Samaritan Society centres
Dozens of continuing care workers rallied outside Good Samaritan Society care centres in Edmonton and Lethbridge on Monday and Tuesday, urging their employer to raise their wages for the first time since 2017.
The collective agreement between the society and the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees (AUPE) expired in June of that year, and both sides have been unable to agree on a new one.
The union says it's asking for the same salary increases that Alberta Health Services (AHS) and other non-profit employers have agreed to.
"We can't afford to pay our bills and feed our families on a 2017 wage — it's just impossible, especially with the price of groceries these days," said Betty Wiebe, a health-care aide at the Good Samaritan Society Clearwater Centre in Rocky Mountain House and bargaining committee chair.
Wiebe said union members need to work two or three jobs to make ends meet.
The union has 1,400 members who work as licensed practical nurses, housekeepers, health-care aides and kitchen staff at the Good Samaritan Society's care centres across the province.
Mediator recommends 4.25% increase
Mediator Paulette DeKelver, who was appointed in June and met with the parties in July, has recommended a 4.25 per cent wage increase, spread over four years.
DeKelver said she examined the parties' positions and comparable settlements in the health-care and social-assistance sectors.
"These recommendations represent, in my opinion, the best indication of a possible settlement of the terms for a collective agreement," she wrote in an Aug. 28 letter.
The employer and the union must write to the mediator by Thursday to accept or reject the recommendations.
AUPE vice-president Susan Slade said union members have been voting on whether they accept the mediator's recommendations for the last few weeks. The results of that vote are expected on Wednesday.
AUPE vice-president Susan Slade participates in a rally for wage increases outside the Good Samaritan Southgate Care Centre in Edmonton. (Madeleine Cummings/CBC)
"If the employer does not accept the mediator's report, then we will go back to the bargaining table, continue with the essential services agreement and head to formal mediation once that is done," she said.
Slade said union members' responses to the recommendations have been fairly positive. "They're done with waiting for this employer to step up to the plate," she said.
Outside the Good Samaritan Southgate Care Centre in Edmonton on Tuesday afternoon, workers sang, waved union flags and carried signs that said "take the deal" and "pay me in butter; it's worth more."
In a statement, communications director James Frey said the Good Samaritan Society is committed to maintaining a good relationship with unions and is carefully considering its response to the mediator.
"We remain optimistic that negotiations will result in an agreement," he said.
