HSAA represents more than 200 distinct types of health-care professionals. Union members rallied from noon to 1 p.m. in nine cities across the province in a push for a fair contract.--NEWS PHOTO ZOE MASON
zmason@medicinehatnews.com
The Health Sciences Association of Alberta held a series of provincewide rallies Thursday to advocate for a new deal in negotiations with Alberta Health Services.
Rallies were held outside health-care centres across the province, including Medicine Hat Regional Hospital.
HSAA represents specialized health-care professionals, including paramedics, diagnostic imaging specialists, pharmacists and more than 200 other professions. The union rejected a tentative agreement with AHS in September. Members voted 59 per cent in favour of rejection.
“The biggest concern that we have is basically the workloads and the short staff,” said Trevor Puritch, who represents the South District of HSAA including Medicine Hat.
HSAA vice-president Leanne Alfaro says those concerns were not adequately addressed in the tentative agreement. In an increasingly competitive market, Alberta needs to be doing more to attract and retain health-care professionals.
“It’s wages and benefits and working conditions,” she said. “To be able to stop the short staffing, you need to be able to recruit more. To recruit more, you have to entice people to come to Alberta. Why choose Alberta over somewhere else when you can go anywhere because of the short staffing issues globally?”
Alfaro says offering more days off and reducing mandatory overtime are examples of measures that would help improve working conditions and attract new personnel. The other big factor is wages.
“Our last two contracts had a total of 4.25 per cent in wage increases. We are not even keeping up with inflation.”
According to recent data, there are 80,000 people on the surgical waitlist in the province. There are nearly half a million Albertans waiting for health-care services, including 170,000-plus waiting for diagnostic services.
“Alberta Health Services and the HSAA remain at the bargaining table. We are committed to reaching a fair and fiscally responsible agreement that supports health-care workers and protects taxpayers,” reads a statement from the office of the Minister of Treasury Board and Finance.
Alfaro and Puritch both emphasized that the union is striving to reach an agreement with AHS. Engagement between the parties is ongoing and they hope to find common ground. But if negotiations fail, Alfaro says strike is not off the table.
“I mean, the government knows the risks here,” she said. “If they don’t come forward with something, then they are risking job action and that will delay care even more for Albertans.”
Alfaro says striking is a last resort.
“We don’t want to withdraw services to patients. But our health-care system has been eroding for years, and now we’re in a crisis situation. Something needs to be done and we’re standing up.”
“All of our members are patient-focused,” added Puritch. “That’s where we’re all in agreement. We want to provide the best health care that we can give. Under the circumstances, that’s what we’re struggling with.”
The UCP are copying Ralph Klein’s playbook. Ruining public healthcare so they can get it privatized.