Union members protest outside of Chinook Regional Hospital in January 2020. (Lethbridge News Now)

By David Opinko

Province asks for 1% wage cut for AUPE members & three-year wage freeze

Feb 7, 2020 | 4:08 PM

LETHBRIDGE, AB – Tens of thousands of workers in Alberta could see a slight rollback in their paycheques if the provincial government gets their way.

Bargaining between the Government of Alberta and the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees (AUPE) started on Thursday, February 6.

Currently, AUPE has 23,578 public service members spanning government, healthcare, education, boards and agencies, municipalities, and private companies.

According to the union, the province is asking for a one per cent cut in wages in the first year of a new collective agreement and for there to be no raises for the following three years.

They report that the government’s other demands include:

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• Reductions in some overtime pay
• Elimination of Christmas closure
• Reduction by about two-thirds to shift differentials
• Reduction by about two-thirds to weekend premium
• Reduction in flexible spending account
• Eliminating job-security provisions
• Making it easier to contract out the work of AUPE members
• Reclassifying some classifications to lower pay rates
  • Program Services 3 and 4 (Local 2)
  • Correctional Service Worker 2 (Local 3)
  • Natural Resources 6 to 9 (Local 5)
  • Human Services Worker 5 and 6 (Local 6)

AUPE President Guy Smith believes the proposals are not based on evidence or needs, “but on the government’s ideological commitment to attack us and the work we do.”

“An independent arbitrator ruled only last week that GOA workers deserved a one-per-cent raise and that there was no economic justification to cut pay. Yet, here we see the government punishing us for getting that minimal raise by seeking to take it away immediately. This is an act of revenge, not a rational argument,” adds Smith.

The union countered with their own proposal, which includes:

• Wage raises of 2.5 per cent per year in line with expected cost-of-living increases
• Continuation of job-security provisions
• Limitations on the misuse or improper use of wage and temporary employees
• Prohibition on the contracting out of bargaining-unit work
• Continuation of the current defined-benefit pension if the government were to change legislation regarding pensions

When Finance Minister Travis Toews unveiled their October 2019 provincial budget, he called for an overall reduction in the size of the public sector workforce by 7.7 per cent which would mainly happen through attrition.

The following week, Toews said the government would be asking arbitrators to impose a two per cent wage cut for collective bargaining agreements.

Hundreds of members from AUPE and the Union of Alberta Nurses protested against the proposed cuts outside of Lethbridge’s Chinook Regional Hospital in January.