Nurses union plans information pickets at Alberta hospitals on Aug. 11

By 6:30 a.m. July 6, 2021, about a dozen picketers had gathered outside the Sturgeon Community Hospital.

CALGARY — Nurses in Alberta will hold information pickets outside hospitals and health care centres next week to speak out against proposed wage rollbacks and other changes.

The province has proposed a three per cent wage reduction, however when combined with other rollbacks – the elimination of the semi-annual lump sum payments, reduced shift and weekend premiums – the nurses union contends it would equal about five per cent.

The pickets by United Nurses of Alberta are planned for Aug. 11.

"After 18 months on the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic, Alberta’s nurses are exhausted and overworked," read a release from UNA.

"Nurses go to work every day to make sure Albertans get the best and safest patient care possible. What we want most is fairness in the workplace.

Beds are closing because hospitals are short of nurses. This is because of the pandemic burnout and a long history of understaffing nurses."

Alberta needs nurses, they group says.

"The roll backs proposed by the government are an insult to nurses and won’t help Alberta recruit and keep health care workers, which is what we need to keep hospital beds open," read the release.

"Money is not the only issue in these talks. They want to roll back provisions that nurses have had for decades, including a very important rule that a registered nurse or registered psychiatric nurse is in-charge of nursing units."

The information pickets will be set up in:

Calgary

Edmonton

Lethbridge

Medicine Hat

Red Deer

Stony Plain

Ponoka

Westlock

Whitecourt