AHS Refuses to Negotiate Wages with HSAA
On October 10, Collective Bargaining between the Health Sciences Association of Alberta (HSAA) and Alberta Health Services (AHS) broke down over the employer's refusal to negotiate wages.
"Our members came ready to negotiate to get a fair deal for the professionals that are essential to providing Albertans with health care. They were met by an employer unwilling even to discuss their insulting monetary proposal," said Mike Parker, President of HSAA. "We would be willing to sit down and bargain our proposals with them if they treated us fairly and like all other health-care unions."
HSAA members have been in negotiations with AHS since March 2024. The current circumstances and environment around bargaining has brought about a need to advise our members of our frustrations that the employer is not meeting with us and treating us differently that other health-care unions.
AHS targets 21% (4466) of HSAA members with a monetary proposal of lump sum payments based on the proposed percentages rather than applying them to the base wage rate. This proposal would effectively freeze the wages of Social Workers, Speech Language Pathologists, Respiratory Therapists, Pharmacy Technicians and Health Information Management Professionals.
AHS's opening monetary proposal for all HSAA members is 7.5% over four years (2% in year 1, 2% in year 2, 1.75% in year 3 and 1.75% in year 4).
"We are in a health-care staffing crisis, and this government who sets the mandate for public sector bargaining, is telling health-care professionals in Alberta that they do not respect them and the services they provide for Albertans," continued Parker "Wages below inflation or lumps sums will only make the staffing crisis worse by pushing health-care workers out of the province and making Alberta even more unattractive to new workers."
"We need to be doing everything we can to retain and recruit health-care workers to ensure that our public health system is accessible for everyone when they need it. This divisive proposal and refusal to negotiate is an attack on our rights as union members. HSAA members are united in our position that all health-care professionals deserve a fair wage increase above inflation, and we will not be backing down from that." concluded Mike Parker.