Article content

After bargaining for more than a year, the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees and the provincial government are heading into mediation.

AUPE president Guy Smith said the province recently applied for mediation in its talks with the union around a new contract for its approximately 23,000 direct employees of the government.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or AUPE going into mediation with provincial government Back to video

Andy Sims, a former head of the Alberta Labour Relations Board who helped draft the NDP government’s overhaul of labour laws last year, has been appointed mediator.

Smith said the AUPE agreed to mediation but isn’t happy that negotiations have dragged on to reach this point since the last contract expired April 1, 2017.

“There’s an overall frustration we haven’t been able to secure a collective agreement yet,” he said in an interview Wednesday.

“Our members are getting frustrated, but we have said we’re not going to sign an agreement that’s not going to meet their needs and we’ve still got some major issues outstanding.”