Health-care workers in Alberta serve strike notice

Thousands of nursing care workers will go on strike on Saturday, the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees announced Wednesday.

The union representing thousands of health-care workers in Alberta has served strike notice.

• Sign up for breaking news alerts from CTV News Edmonton, right at your fingertips

According to its website, the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees (AUPE), representing Locals 041, 043, 044, 045, and 046, served notice at 7:55 a.m. on Wednesday.

“Mediation was not successful. We did not reach a tentative agreement nor receive recommendations from our mediator,” the union said in the announcement.

“The government and our employers must take this strike notice seriously. We hope they will return to the bargaining table with an improved mandate. There is still time to reach a fair deal at the bargaining table before we go on strike.”

The union said the strike will begin at 8:30 a.m. on Saturday which will see licensed practical nurses (LPNs) and health care aides (HCAs) walk off the job.

Finance Minister Nate Horner said the province is disappointed in the union’s notice to strike.

“AUPE was offered a fair and reasonable deal that was highly competitive with other provinces across Canada,” said Horner in a statement Wednesday afternoon. “Regardless, we want to assure Albertans that AHS has contingency plans in place in case of a strike.”

He said AUPE and AHS have concluded an agreement ensuring staff levels will be maintained to support essential services during job action.

“This means 80 per cent of the LPNs and HCAs will continue working for the duration of the strike to support essential services, while only 20 per cent are legally permitted to withdraw services from non-essential services.”

AHS said there have been no changes to operations or any postponements in anticipation of the strike.

“It is premature for AUPE to speculate about the cancellation of surgeries at this point,” said the health agency in a statement. “Should there be any direct patient impacts, patients will be notified directly.”

Workers who could walk off the job include licensed practical nurses and health-care aides.

Bargaining for a new collective agreement began in March 2024 with talks breaking down in April 2025.

AUPE members voted 98 per cent in favour of strike action earlier this month with 11,030 of 15,650 eligible members participating.

Major sticking points in negotiations have been compensation for LPNs. AUPE said LPNs in Alberta are doing 84 per cent of what registered nurses do, but only getting paid some 60 per cent.

The union is also looking for a reduction of annual hours to 36.81 hours a week which Finance Minister Nate Horner called unfeasible.

AHS estimated that AUPE’s proposal would cost the province $2 billion.

Alberta Federation of Labour (AFL) president Gil McGowan said the group representing hundreds of thousands of workers across the province stands with health-care workers.

“This withdrawal of the services of 16,000 nursing care staff … will definitely be felt in the system,” said McGowan in a statement. “It is going to cause some disruption, and we know that AUPE members did not take that decision lightly.”

He said the Alberta government is undermining the morale of health-care workers.

“Instead of bringing stability to health care, the UCP delivers only chaos, confusion, corruption and incompetence,” he said. “AUPE members are bravely standing up against a government that has never valued public health care.”

Last month, the AFL said it was preparing for a general strike after the province used the notwithstanding clause to send teachers back to work following a three-week strike.

There are some concerns that the province could use the notwithstanding clause again to force health-care workers to return to their jobs.

“To use it again in this case, I think, really risks it appearing that the provincial government is willing to override rights and doesn’t want to properly respect them,” said Lori Williams, a policy studies professor at Mount Royal University in Calgary.

Horner said it is “highly unlikely” the province will use the notwithstanding clause in this case.

Williams said AUPE’s strike notice could also bring the province’s approach to bargaining into question.

“If it looks like the government is basically using its power against unions, against health-care workers, teachers, people that we need for our systems to run, if they’re seen as not bargaining or taking seriously the folks with whom they’re negotiating, I think there could be a political cost to them,” Williams told CTV News Edmonton.

Impacts of the strike

Even with rotating strikes, Jason Foster, a human resources and labour relations professor at Athabasca University, says many aspects of the health-care system will grind to a halt.

“Elective surgeries, services and care that aren’t absolutely essential will be curtailed,” said Foster. “Things will happen less frequently, things like baths for seniors in a long-term care centre.”

But there will be enough nurses on the job at any given time to ensure that people’s lives are not put at risk, he adds.

“That’s obviously the core basis that I think all parties are concerned about,” said Foster. “But there will definitely be disruptions to the system. There’s just not enough wiggle room in our health care system right now to be able to even manage the loss of 20 to 30 per cent of nurses at any one time.”

While health-care workers are already under a lot of stress, Foster said knowing that they’ll be a little more shorthanded will be challenging.

“But the flip side is that it will also be encouraging and heartening to see their coworkers standing up for themselves for a better deal, trying to get improvements to the health-care system,” he said.

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Miriam Valdes-Carletti