Alberta nurses strike vote possible as contract talks with government falter

Alberta's nurses could soon find themselves on the picket line as recent talks with the province floundered over disagreements around pay and staffing.

David Harrigan, the United Nurses of Alberta director of labour relations, says informal mediation meetings last month were productive but the gap between the two sides seems too wide to bridge.

"Unfortunately, I think the gulf is just too big," Harrigan said in an interview earlier this week.

The union, which represents more than 30,000 nurses, is seeking 30 per cent pay raises spread over two years while the Alberta government's standing offer is 7.5 per cent over four years.

Harrigan said the two sides also find themselves far apart on operational issues, specifically staffing shortages and how to manage the resulting workplace conditions.

"I think both [sides] recognize there are some real, serious, serious problems," he said.

"It's just that we have completely different views on how to solve those problems."

Harrigan said the province wants to remove an existing contract clause that requires Alberta Health Services to try to fill job vacancies from within the bargaining unit before hiring outside candidates.

"They want to say that article does not apply for one year and [Alberta Health Services] gets to hire whoever they want," he said.

"We think the way to do things is improve the job conditions and then you'll be able to recruit people."

Bumping pay for nurses is a significant part of improving job conditions, Harrigan said, especially since wages have not kept pace with inflation.

"They're having a huge recruitment problem," he said. "Why on earth would they think that offering people less rights and [salary] increases that are less than the cost of living would be the way to address that?"

Since 2013, Alberta's nurses have received a combined wage increase of 11.5 per cent and five years of wage freezes.

More than half of that pay increase was obtained before 2018.

Health Minister Adriana LaGrange said Thursday she couldn't speak to the issues Harrigan highlighted, as negotiations are ongoing.

"We have to bargain in good faith," LaGrange told reporters. "I know that typically each side starts with a position and they land somewhere that is agreeable to all sides."

As the union points to short staffing and mandatory overtime burning out nurses, LaGrange said Alberta has added about 4,000 more nurses during the last year.

The union has scheduled a meeting for next week during which delegates from each affected local are to be asked for direction on next steps. Harrigan said that could mean reconsidering the government's standing offer, proceeding with formal mediation or potentially a strike vote.

Before a strike vote, the union and the province would need to go through formal mediation. If formal mediation is a bust, a union must wait for a 14-day cooling off period before requesting permission to hold a strike vote. 

Harrigan thinks mediation would be short-lived, considering a "really intense" informal mediation process proved unsuccessful. He said the parties met almost every day in September, sometimes working into the evening.

If a strike does occur, Albertans would still have access to emergency medical care, because of an essential services agreement signed by the two parties.

The agreement ensures some nurses remain on the job throughout a strike in order to ensure the safety of patients.

It also requires both parties to maintain open communication channels in the event of an emergency, so additional nursing staff can be called in.

Professor warns public sector strike talk will ramp up

Registered nurses aren't the only workers currently bargaining with the province. There are nearly 250,000 public-sector workers trying to ink new contracts with the Alberta government, school boards, post-secondary institutions and health authorities.

The Alberta Union of Provincial Employees and some 82,000 public servants and hospital support staff it represents are looking for a new contract.

That union is seeking raises of 26 per cent over three years and the Alberta government has countered with 7.5 per cent over four years.

Jason Foster, an Athabasca University professor of human resources and labour relations, told CBC News Thursday that the public can expect to hear more talk of job action as negotiations break down and the parties emerge from behind closed doors.

Since the United Conservative Party government took power, the provincial government has mandated the wage offers provincial entities can extend to workers. Foster said the province has yet to budget from that mandate, which is bringing some talks to an impasse.

The unions furthest ahead could be in legal strike positions as soon as November, Foster said, and that's going to be a political liability for the government.

"If you've got a bunch of nurses on a picket line instead of in hospital rooms, or you've got educational assistants on a picket line instead of in the classrooms, it's not going to take very long … for the public to get frustrated and angry and fed up," Foster said.

Given the escalating cost of living, and working conditions during the COVID-19 pandemic, Foster believes employees would have public sympathy.

Alberta's finance minister referred questions about the negotiations to Alberta Health Services.

AHS said it is aware of the UNA reporting meeting scheduled for next week.

"We remain committed to the bargaining process and have no further comment at this time," a spokesperson said in an email.