Nurses reject mediator-recommended collective agreement

A nurse is shown in this undated file image.

Alberta's nurses have rejected a new collective agreement proposed by a mediator.

In the online vote on Wednesday, 60.48 per cent of locals and 38.88 per cent of United Nurses of Alberta's (UNA) members voted to accept the mediator's recommendation.

A majority amongst both locals and members was needed to ratify the agreement.

All locals participated in the vote, while 75 per cent of UNA's 30,000 members participated.

"I think, ultimately, what nurses wanted was respect," said UNA President Heather Smith on Thursday.

"I think that nurses just don't feel that this offer respects the value of their contribution and, in some ways, makes amends for the way they feel that they were treated during the last round of bargaining and the way things unfolded during COVID."

The UNA said it would be contacting employers immediately to discuss next steps. Those include working with Alberta Health Services (AHS) on essential service staffing plans and agreements in case of a strike.

"We would have to agree to those staffing plans before we could do the next formal step, which is formal mediation," Smith said, explaining that strike action won't be possible until after that mediation and the following cooling-off period.

Smith said it was in "everyone's interest" to get back to the negotiating table as soon as possible.

She, at the union's AGM earlier in the month, called the mediator's proposal – consisting of pay increases between 12 and 22 per cent over the length of the contract, in addition to an expedited process to challenge inadequate baseline staffing, and enhanced premiums – "the best agreement possible under the circumstances we find ourselves in in this moment in history, with this economy, and with this government."

The union originally sought 20-per-cent and 10-per-cent increases in compensation in the first and second years of the agreement, arguing members' pay increases had been either zero or less than inflation for more than a decade.

The government proposed increases of two per cent in the first and second years and 1.75 per cent in the third and fourth.

Smith said current negotiations have been tainted by a "legacy of anger" over a bid to rollback nurse wages by three per cent during the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Anger from that last round continues, and workplaces continue to be very unsafe, dissatisfying," she added. "The lack of capacity resulting in hallway patients … the constant sense that you just never catch up and you never do the job you really believe patients and their families deserve

"That's all part of this sense of disrespect, and that offer that was put before them did nothing to quell that."

Nate Horner, minister of finance and president of the Alberta treasury board, said he was disappointed that the deal was rejected.

"The deal would have made Alberta’s registered nurses the highest paid in Canada; created more capacity by hiring 1,000 new graduating nurses annually into full time positions; and tripled investment into recruiting to rural and remote health care locations," he said in a statement.

"We understand that UNA wants to get back to the table, we’ll be there.”

The UNA represents health employees of AHS, Recovery Alberta, Covenant Health, Lamont Health Care Centre, and The Bethany Group (Camrose).