Rallies were held at hospitals throughout Alberta on Wednesday as thousands of nurses gather in protest of a proposed wage rollback.
The United Nurses of Alberta (UNA) has been in talks with Alberta’s UCP government since July, trying to negotiate a new collective agreement.
The union is using a series of information pickets on Wednesday dubbed a ‘Day of Action’ to express its objections to the government’s suggested three per cent salary rollback.
The union, which represents more than 30,000 nurses in Alberta, said the rollback would be in addition to other cutbacks like the elimination of semi-annual lump-sum payments and reduced shift and weekend premiums.
As such, the union said it represents at least a five per cent compensation reduction.
“Alberta’s nurses, over the last 18 months, have been giving everything they have to fighting the pandemic and keeping Albertans healthy and safe,” UNA spokesperson Cameron Westhead said.
“It just feels very disrespectful to have given everything that we have, put our families in danger and ourselves in danger of catching the (COVID-19) virus, only to have the government tell us that we’re worth five per cent less than before we started the pandemic.
“It’s very insulting to nurses to feel undervalued by our government.”
Through tears, UNA Local 95 local vice-president and registered nurse at the Alberta Children’s Hospital Claire Golaska said nurses in the province are “experiencing a lot of moral distress” as the COVID-19 pandemic drags on, and is now overlapping with a difficult bargaining process.
“Our government hasn’t been very kind to us and our public health-care, in all honesty. And we really need our public to be on our side. This has been a very, very difficult 16 months. It’s been really hard for everyone,” she said.
“A lot of people have seen and been through things that they… it’s unfathomable, you can’t even explain it.
“Everyone is struggling. This is a workforce that’s been burned out since before the pandemic began.”
Golaska said the nature of the bargaining has been “disheartening,” and the fight is “not about the money,” but rather it’s a fight for resources and autonomy of leadership. She added nurses don’t get into their line of work “for the money,” but instead to help people.
Kevin Champagne, local president with United Nurses of Alberta in Calgary, said the pay cut the government is pushing is a small part of a larger fight for more resources to be able to deliver the high level of care Albertans expect and deserve.
“We can’t do what we’re trained for if they don’t give us the resources,” he said.
“We continue to hear this message in the media, in the public, that nurses are greedy, we want overtime. The reality is, if AHS would hire and staff their units appropriately, overtime would not be an issue. This is not something the nurses create, this is something the employer has allowed to happen.
“Something’s got to give. The reality is if you don’t have staff to deliver the care, services are going to be delayed.
“We’re about to embark on a fourth wave, it’s here in Canada now. We’re seeing, even in Alberta, admissions go up here at the Foothills site… So what that’s going to mean is, similar to what we saw in previous waves, delays in OR surgical procedures, changes to units that become COVID-designated, and just the capacity for having patients see in-person practitioners won’t happen.”
Champagne said he wants to see more meaningful engagement on behalf of the government with nurses unions, to better understand their struggles and demands.
He added the government’s claims that nurses in Alberta are paid more than anywhere else in the country is “just a distraction,” adding that nurses’ five per-cent higher pay compared to others in Canada is “marginal” considering most other sectors are paid 15 per cent more than their counterparts in other provinces and territories.
Westhead said the union hopes the information pickets on Wednesday will send a message to the government that they’re going to “stand up and fight back.”
“We don’t want to take these rollbacks, and we think members of the public also don’t want to see nurses’ pockets being picked,” Westhead added.
Westhead said Alberta is seeing beds closing, especially in rural areas, due to a staffing shortage.
“If that staffing shortage goes on and on, patient care will obviously suffer,” he said. “What’s causing the bed shortages is vacancies not being filled.”
Westhead said the proposed wage rollback won’t help Alberta recruit and keep health-care workers.
Margie Emes, the UNA president for Lethbridge, who is also a registered nurse, says Lethbridge has been dealing with frequent staff shortages.
“We stressed about going home to our families and sharing an unknown virus with our families,” she said. “This disrespectful proposal put forward just adds to the stress.
“We work short on our units regularly. It’s a regular occurrence.”
“Frankly it’s very disheartening and insulting that at this point, that’s the value that nurses hold,” Emes said of the proposed rollback.
Lethbridge-East MLA Nathan Neudorf opposes the rollbacks.
“We really need nurses right now. Nurses have been asked to do a lot,” he said on July 22. “They’re continuing to be asked to do a lot and do a lot more, and I think the timing is unfortunate.”
In a statement, Minister of Treasury Board and Finance Travis Toews said the UCP government is “appreciative of the hard work and dedication that health care professionals – especially nurses – have shown over the last 18 months.”
“We respect the rights of all Albertans to express their opinions on matters important to them,” Toews said.
“Our government is also committed to standing up for the health care system, and representing the best interests of all Albertans. That’s why we have been urging both Alberta Health Services (AHS) and UNA to work towards a new collective agreement that will bring long-term labour stability to the health care system.
“Reaching a new collective agreement with UNA is essential for the province.”
The province has said that on average, Alberta’s nurses are paid 5.6 per cent more than in comparable provinces.
However, Westhead said all occupations in the province earn more than their counterparts across Canada.
“Most occupations earn about 15 per cent more than their counterparts in the rest of Canada, so nurses only earning about five per cent more than their counterparts is actually a bargain.”
The UNA said the two sides met on Tuesday and will return to the bargaining table on Friday.
For more information on picket times and locations, you can visit the United Nurses of Alberta website.
—With files from Sarah Offin and Eloise Therien