Health sciences union, AHS return to bargaining table

The health sciences union president says they have the support of Albertans as they get set to return to the bargaining table with the province.

Mediation resumed Wednesday between Alberta Health Services (AHS) and the Health Sciences Association of Alberta (HSAA), which represents paramedics, laboratory technologists, pharmacists and more.

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HSAA president Mike Parker would not say during a news conference in Edmonton in the morning how far apart the two parties are.

“We have agreed to embargo the conversation. This allows the two sides to have fruitful discussions. But I can tell you this: Our members have been loud and clear that what they need in all of this is the strength of a collective agreement that retains the workers we have and recruits more,” he told reporters.

In total, HSAA represents 22,000 health-care professionals in more than 200 disciplines.

In September, nearly 60 per cent of HSAA members voted against a tentative deal that included a 12-per cent general wage increase over four years. According to the union, the deal did not address concerns about staffing levels and unsustainable workloads.

Parker said advanced care paramedics have a vacancy rate of 12 per cent, psychologists 13 per cent, radiation therapists almost 17 per cent, and cardiovascular perfusionists 22 per cent.

In a statement, the press secretary to Alberta’s treasury board and finance minister Nate Horner said the government values these workers and “respects the collective bargaining process and remains committed to reaching a fair and reasonable agreement that supports both health-care professionals and Alberta taxpayers.”

Both Horner’s office and AHS deferred to the other when asked why bargaining did not resume sooner.

Although HSAA has previously floated holding a strike vote, Parker on Wednesday said the union was focused on getting a new deal and any future steps would have to be decided after seeing how bargaining was progressing.

Asked if HSAA was discussing a general strike with other unions, he said, “Workers deserve to be heard at the bargaining table and not legislated back to work,” and that it supported the Alberta Teachers’ Association’s legal challenge of legislation that forced striking teachers back to work.

In a bid to garner support while waiting for talks to resume, HSAA members rallied in October and the union launched an ad campaign, soliciting thousands of letters of support, it says, from Albertans.