A pair of public sector union leaders in St. Albert is focused on getting new contracts in place.
Local 2130 of the International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF) has been without a contract with St. Albert Fire Services since 2019, according to president Greg Harvey.
He said Wednesday locals across the province are without a contract.
“It is unusual, it’s kind of how the process is playing out provincially right now,” he said. “I believe there’s almost 4,000 firefighters in Alberta without a current collective agreement. It’s just how the bargaining climate is, I guess.”
He hopes the arbitration process will wrap up sometime in 2025.
“I think they're just waiting to see what the municipal trends are as far as what those settlements look like,” Harvey said. “It's a process that makes sure that you know we can bargain and ensure we have safe working conditions for all ages and just maintain our ongoing commitment to the well-being of our firefighters here as well as our community.”
He pointed to advances they’ve been able to secure in mental health support and presumptive cancer coverage for firefighters.
“That's been driven now, in a huge way specifically by the International Association of Firefighters, as well as on a provincial level. We’re one of the top provinces in the country for firefighter presumptive cancer.
“We're proud of our accomplishments and we're just gonna continue to work to protect the health and Wellness of our members as well as our community everyday.”
Mediation at St. Albert hospital
Labour Day and September will bring contract mediation for the 550 registered nurses at Sturgeon Community Hospital, represented by United Nurses of Alberta (UNA) Local 85. Their collective agreement expired in March of this year.
“Nurses want a contract,” Orissa Shima, Local 85 president, said Tuesday. “I think we're grateful for a lot of things, but still see a lot of work on the horizon in terms of how to make improvements to our working conditions and that kind of stuff.”
After working through the horrors of the pandemic, the UNA bargaining team was able to get coverage for psychological services.
“That was something we had to fight for,” Shima said. “We secured them because of our union. We have health benefits. I have a pension. As hard as nursing is some days, we're super fortunate to have some of these things.”
Shima has been an RN for 24 years and still puts in rounds in addition to the time she spends on union business.
“It's a tough place to work right now in nursing,” she said. “If you talk to any frontline nurse, they're going to tell you it's the worst it's ever been.”
She said nurses are looking for improvements in “lots” of areas of the contract, specifically wages and benefits. In terms of working conditions, they are hoping to see language that would provide for safer patient-to-nurse ratios and a healthy workload.
“They feel like they deserve respect and that respect is gonna cost some money for the employer and for the government because nurses haven't seen significant wage gains in quite some time,” Shima said. “They've kind of fallen behind in terms of cost of living increases.”
Contractual concerns aside, Labour Day offers Shima a chance to reflect.
“Labour Day is an important day for nurses. I'm super proud to be part of the United Nurses of Alberta. We’re lucky to be part of a union with the history and the tradition the UNA has, so I guess it's a chance to reflect on successes but also to look ahead to how we can in the labour movement support each other because there's a lot of unions in negotiations right now.
“We're at the table right now and I think sometimes other unions look for nurses to set the tone and it's challenging. There’s definitely some unrest … but I think that most nurses are hopeful and optimistic that our union is going to keep up the fight and get nurses a good contract, and I think the history of the UNA kind of supports that.”
