EDMONTON—Alberta’s nurses union is seeking an emergency labour board hearing after it says the new provincial government broke a contract by postponing salary negotiations.

United Nurses of Alberta has been fighting for a 3 per cent increase after several years of stagnant wages.

According to David Harrigan, the union’s director of labour relations, a wage reopener arbitration hearing was scheduled for Monday where representatives would have discussed their demands with their employers through an arbitrator.

Harrigan said the union’s collective agreement states the arbitration could happen no later than June, but Alberta Health Services told the union Friday that the United Conservative government had instructed them to put it on hold until July or later so the province could “engage in consultation” with public sector unions first.

Harrigan said the move violates members’ “constitutionally protected collective bargaining rights,” and is asking the Alberta Labour Relations Board to order that arbitration hearings resume “as required by law.”

“The UCP MLAs haven’t even been sworn in yet and they’re already breaking contracts,” he said, adding he has never seen an Alberta government interfere in negotiations to this degree.

Read more:

Alberta Premier Jason Kenney creates panel to balance budget

Jason Kenney sworn in as 18th premier of Alberta, names his UCP cabinet

Critical staff shortages lead to overtime jump at Red Deer hospital, nurses union says

“I’ve been in this job for a long time. Even in the days of Premier (Ralph) Klein, he wasn’t legislating changes, he wasn’t breaking contracts.”

A wage reopener allows only the wage portion of the agreement to be reopened for negotiation while the rest of the contract remains in place.

The union, which represents 30,000 nurses across the province, has filed grievances with the labour board against employers Alberta Health Services, Covenant Health, Lamont Health Care Centre, and the Bethany Group.

The union’s current agreement with those four employers expires on March 31, 2020.

Alberta Finance Minister Travis Toews confirmed Tuesday that the government delayed the hearing.

He said the province is waiting on a financial report from its new “blue ribbon panel,” due in mid-August, suggesting arbitration could be delayed until at least that time.

Premier Jason Kenney unveiled the panel last week, led by former Saskatchewan finance minister Janice MacKinnon, to find ways to cut spending. MacKinnon oversaw significant health-care cuts during her tenure as Saskatchewan’s NDP finance minister in the 1990s that resulted in the closure of 52 rural hospitals.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

In an article co-authored with University of Calgary economist Jack Mintz in October 2017, MacKinnon called for a wage reduction of 2 per cent for all provincial public employees, followed by two years of no increases.

Harrigan worries that rollbacks are coming for his members.

“We think what’s going to happen is they’re going to pretend that they want to consult with the stakeholders, and then they’ll have these meetings where they pretend that they’re listening, and then they’ll say, ‘OK, we’ve consulted and now we think we need to legislate reductions in salary,’” he said.

“It’s just ridiculous to go through this pretence.”

Toews said the planned consultations are legitimate and a decision has not been made on whether nurses’ wages will be rolled back.

He said the delay is “the responsible thing to do” given the province’s economic situation.

“We’re keeping all options open at this point, but we have not made any decisions,” Toews said.

NDP labour and immigration critic Christina Gray called the postponement “incredibly frustrating” and said it’s surprising that the government would interfere in a collective bargaining agreement it was not party to.

“The government is playing a dangerous game when it disrespects workers,” Gray said.

“The road the government is going down now leads to mistrust with front-line workers and possible job action.”

With files from Kieran Leavitt

Read more about: