About 16,000 unionized Alberta hospital workers, including licensed practical nurses and health-care aides, have voted overwhelmingly to strike if necessary to back contract demands.
The Alberta Union of Provincial Employees says about 11,000 workers voted and 98 per cent approved job action.
If the unofficial AUPE vote results stand, members could begin job action as soon as Nov. 20.
Such a strike could be the first in Alberta since Premier Danielle Smith’s United Conservative government invoked the Charter’s notwithstanding clause last week to force striking teachers back to work and shield that law from court challenges.
Smith returned to the legislature Wednesday for the first time since the teachers strike ended, and was asked by the Opposition NDP in question period if she plans to use that clause to shut down any potential labour action from AUPE.
“We always bargain in good faith,” said Smith in response, eliciting a wave of laughter from the Opposition benches.
The health-care workers and the provincial government have been negotiating for 18 months with no resolution.
AUPE president Sandra Azocar said four days of mediation are scheduled to begin Thursday, and while members would rather be doing their jobs, they’re ready to hit the picket line if they need to.
“They are fed up with stagnant wages and unsafe working conditions that hurts workers, patients and Alberta’s public health-care system,” she said.
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“I think this vote sends a very clear message that what they tried to do to the teachers, it wasn’t necessarily a tactic that works in terms of scaring workers (away from) taking action for themselves.”
Finance Minister Nate Horner told reporters it’s “highly unlikely” the government would invoke the notwithstanding clause to put an end to labour action from the group of health-care workers.
“It’s a tool that the government has, but it’s certainly not something that we’re focused on,” Horner said.
Horner said the teachers strike was unique because of its size and complexity. That labour situation involved two tiers of bargaining — at the local and provincial level -—and forced more than 740,000 students out of class for weeks.
Horner said the AUPE’s bargaining is a single tier and many workers provide essential services, meaning not all would legally be permitted to strike.
Smith said in the house between 70 and 80 per cent of the workers are deemed essential, and said she’s hopeful they can come to an agreement.
Horner said in a statement the province has offered a 12 per cent wage increase over four years, but also estimates the union’s counter-proposal would cost Albertans more than $2 billion.
He said while licensed practical nurses play a critical role, the union is demanding they be paid “almost the same” as registered nurses and bargaining for salary increases of 40 to 55 per cent.
“A key consideration that must be considered is the fact that they do not have the same education or extensive scope of practice as registered nurses,” he wrote.
Kate Robinson, lead negotiator with AUPE, said some of the nurses AUPE represents have seen their scope of practice increase to doing 84 per cent of what registered nurses do, but are only paid about 67 per cent of the wage.
“It’s been a long time without any wage increases that reflect the scope of practice for both health-care aides and LPNs,” Robinson said.
Opposition NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi told reporters that it would be catastrophic to patients and families should the strike happen, and the spectre of the notwithstanding clause still looms.
“Albertans would be justified in asking themselves if they are engineering yet another strike so that they can use the notwithstanding clause again, now that they’ve gotten a taste of this power,” Nenshi said.
“I think they’re trying to think of it as an all-purpose escape clause to keep from having to negotiate good deals.”
Smith’s use of the notwithstanding clause has drawn widespread criticism, including by the Anglican Diocese of Edmonton, Amnesty International’s Canadian branch, the Canadian Civil Liberties Association and the Canadian Bar Association.
Four groups representing criminal defence lawyers in Alberta also added their voice to the list, saying in a statement Wednesday that it showed a “disturbing disregard” for the rights of Albertans.
“The loss of the rights by one group is a devastating loss of rights for us all, and erodes the fabric of our society,” reads the statement signed by criminal defence lawyer organizations in four Alberta cities.
— with files from Jack Farrell, The Canadian Press
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