AHS Bargaining Update #28

Bargaining updates

Dear members, 

We are grateful for the feedback that we have received from many of you on social media and through email in the last month. 

We understand you are increasingly frustrated and anxious as you wait for next steps. We share in that frustration and in your desire for the best and fastest path to an improved offer that members can vote on. 

To that end, the HSAA Board of Directors and staff have been working around the clock on multiple strategies to increase pressure on the employer to secure a better deal for members. 

We have been weighing some critical strategic considerations including: 

  1. We cannot proceed to a legal strike vote without exiting bargaining.  
  2. A strong strike vote will lead to job action. 
  3. A strike or a ratification delay that goes beyond December 22—the date of the payroll transition to the new provincial health agencies and corporations—will result in the loss of members’ seniority, banked time and benefit portability when moving between employers. 

Our decision to return to the bargaining table with a focus on increasing compensation, is a strategic choice to use this final opportunity to build on the previously negotiated tentative agreement that was developed over 16 months. 

That said, we want to make it clear. HSAA is ready to continue bargaining NOW. AHS’ claim that they can’t bargain until mid-November is as unacceptable to us as it is to you.  

HSAA’s Board of Directors have asked Alberta Finance Minister Nate Horner, in writing, to direct the employer to set new bargaining dates immediately. We are also seeking protection of your seniority rights, banked time and benefit portability so they remain in place beyond the December 22 payroll transition date.

While we are pushing for this final opportunity to return to the table, we will not wait long. That is why we are expediting preparations for a strike vote. 

If the government values the expert care you provide to Albertans, they will get back to the table with a better offer immediately.  

You provide essential frontline care for patients every day and you have been working under an expired agreement for almost 18 months. In a global healthcare shortage, we are only asking for the support you need to deliver the care Albertans deserve.  

Our message to the employer is clear: come back with a better deal, or we will take the next step. 

In solidarity, 

Mike Parker, HSAA President & Leanne Alfaro, HSAA Vice-President