• End the war on doctors
• Scrap the plan to eliminate 11,000 public health care jobs
• Scrap the back-to-school (non)plan and replace it with a plan that will truly keep students, staff and the community safe.
• Take the second wave of COVID seriously by outlining a plan that does not focus on learning to live with it and personal responsibility.
• Reverse the multi-billion-dollar tax giveaways to profitable corporations
• Abandon plans to privatize and corporatize our health care system, including any efforts to introduce a second tier of care for the wealthy
• Reverse cuts to universities and colleges (our economic future depends on high-quality advanced education)
• Reverse attacks on worker rights and protections (attacks on wages and worker bargaining will shrink the economy not grow it)
• Return control of public-sector pensions to those who actually pay for them (workers and employers) and stop the dangerous, irresponsible, and politically motivated effort to pull Alberta out of the Canada Pension Plan (CPP)
• Reverse the decisions to sell parks and remove protections for the headwaters of our rivers (which provide clean drinking war for the majority of Albertans)
• Stop the attacks on public education, including plans to politicize the curriculum and use more public money to finance private schools
• Reverse the criminalization of protest and changes aimed at making it easier for corporations and the wealthy to buy elections
• Stop the attacks on AISH and programs for people with disabilities
• Close the Energy War Room, fire taxpayer-funded PR trolls and fire racist and bigoted staff and appointees
• Stop flirting with separatism
• Consult with the public on a plan for the economy that focuses on diversification, child care and investments in people and public services, instead of simply doubling down on oil and gas (accept that the energy transition is here and plan for it)

Hospital workers, members of the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees (AUPE), walked off the job in 31 hospitals and health centres in 23 cities and towns across Alberta on October 26. Walkouts took place in Athabasca, Calgary (Foothills, Peter Lougheed, Rockyview, South Health Campus, and Sheldon Chumir), Canmore, Cardston, Claresholm (General Hospital and Centre for Mental Health and Addictions). Cold Lake, Edmonton (Alberta Hospital, Royal Alexandra, University of Alberta, and Glenrose Hospitals and Edmonton Remand Centre), Evansburg, Ft. Saskatchewan, Grande Prairie. High Level, High Prairie, Leduc, Lethbridge, Okotoks, Ponoka, Red Deer, Sherwood Park, Slave Lake, Stony Plain, Westlock, Wetaskiwin, and Whitecourt.

A press release issued by AUPE on October 26 quotes union president Guy Smith:

"Anger has been building among members for months. [...] The recent announcement by Health Minister Tyler Shandro of 11,000 jobs being cut in the middle of a global deadly pandemic was the last straw for them. [...]

"Nursing-care and support workers decided today that there was no other option but to fight to protect Albertans at risk, especially during the deadliest pandemic in a century. By constantly short-staffing public health care, this government is pushing our members to the breaking point exactly when Albertans need them most.

"Across this province, working people are rising up against Jason Kenney's job-killing policies and are joining the fight in solidarity. This was a decision taken by the members themselves. AUPE is a democratic union and we respect the wishes of our members."

The press release states that "AUPE Members are committed to ensuring patients' safety during any dispute," and quotes Smith saying:

"Members will do everything in their power to keep Albertans safe. Public safety is why they are taking this action. They know that slashing thousands of frontline jobs during a pandemic is mad. It will lead to lower levels of care and higher costs. It will lead to tragedies. [...]

"[Alberta Health Minister] Shandro and [Alberta Premier] Kenney have arrogantly dismissed the vital role our members play in frontline health care. After risking their lives to come to work every day for more than seven months -- to treat patients, to prevent infections, to keep hospitals running -- their reward is to see their jobs axed and handed over to corporations seeking to profit off patient care. That is shameful."

Smith appealed for other Albertans to join the fight. "All Albertans are being targeted by this government. If you are a public or private-sector worker, a parent, a student, a teacher, someone with a handicap or disabilities, you are all under attack. This is your fight, too."

Alberta Health Services immediately called on the Alberta Labour Relations Board to issue a cease and desist order requiring the workers to return to work, calling the strike "illegal." The labour board issued a cease and desist order at 9 pm on October 26. Following the decision, AUPE issued the following statement:

"After drawing national attention to the privatization of health care in Alberta, health care staff represented by the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees (AUPE) are returning to work Tuesday, October 27, following an order by the Alberta Labour Relations Board (ALRB) to cease and desist their wildcat strike.

"AUPE members won support from across Alberta for their heroic stand, and proved once and for all that healthcare staff is more than doctors and nurses. AUPE is notifying all its members of the obligation to obey the ALRB order by returning to scheduled work."

Throughout the day on October 26, the message was clear that the walk-out signalled the beginning of a fight that must be won. Health care workers put themselves on the line every day to care for the people. They are fighting for the conditions needed to provide care and services, while the government is intent on its gigantic pay-the-rich schemes, privatizing and handing over public services to the uber-rich global corporate interests. The battle for public opinion is on! How dare the Kenney government downgrade services and the conditions of health care workers in the midst of a pandemic, people responded, expressing their support for the workers. Frontline workers know that it is disastrous to hand over medical labs and the control of keeping hospitals clean, providing laundry and linens, feeding patients, and more to private interests whose only goal is to make maximum profits. How dare you treat our heroes like zeroes, they said. 

The workers take responsibility every day, while governments who serve the rich refuse to take any responsibility for the consequences of their anti-social, anti-worker decisions. Instead, they use the power of the state to declare the workers’ actions "illegal." This is not justice. This shows they are unfit to rule and cannot be trusted with the decision-making power. Workers' Forum calls on all Albertans and people across the country to speak out and support the hospital workers!

Many unions expressed their solidarity with striking Alberta hospital workers, who walked out to demand the United Conservative Party (UCP) government withdraw the 11,000 layoffs it announced, and joined the workers on the picket lines. Here are some excerpts from some of the messages of support.

Canadian Union of Public Employees

"CUPE is in full support of Alberta health care workers who are protesting their loss of jobs at the hands of the Kenney government. The people who work in health care are the heroes of the pandemic. They risk their own health to keep the rest of us safe. These workers are being attacked by Jason Kenney who wants to fire them, and then rehire some of them into lower paying jobs after stripping them of their pension plan.

"Alberta Health care workers have been through this before. Previous conservative governments have tried this routine only to admit it caused too much chaos and disruption. And that was when there wasn't a pandemic. Jason Kenney needs to stand down. Jason Kenney needs to cancel his plan to fire 11,000 health care workers.”

Alberta Teachers' Association

"When the government and Alberta Health Services decided to cut 11,000 jobs -- in the middle of a pandemic -- they left these workers with no other choice. These heroes, at their own personal risk, have been standing up for us and fighting the pandemic head-on, and they deserve support and encouragement instead of disrespect and the threats of job losses. We stand with them," said Jason Schilling, President of the Alberta Teachers' Association. He also encouraged teachers to visit the picket lines.

Canadian Union of Postal Workers

"The Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) stands in solidarity with striking health care workers and against the anti-labour government of Jason Kenney and its bid to deeply slash jobs, erode working conditions, and trample union rights. In the midst of the worst pandemic in a century, health workers have tirelessly provided the care needed to the Alberta population. The Kenney government's plans to eliminate 11,000 unionized health care positions, outsourcing them to the private sector, will have the opposite effect, leaving Albertans more vulnerable, and crippling an already fragile economy," the statement from CUPW said.

"CUPW calls on the labour movement to stand firm against neo-liberal bullying and anti-union governments and continue to mount a robust and coordinated response in the face of such threats."

Health Sciences Association of Alberta

"HSAA supports AUPE workers who are standing up against Kenney's health care cuts that were heartlessly announced in the midst of this pandemic," said Mike Parker, President of the Health Sciences Association of Alberta.

"Health care workers have been working tirelessly to keep Albertans safe and they have been rewarded with threats to their jobs by a government that is hell-bent on ripping apart our public health care system. The blame for any disruption to patient care that may occur today needs to land squarely at the feet of Jason Kenney and the UCP," Parker added.

United Nurses of Alberta

Many nurses joined the picket lines during their breaks, and United Nurses of Alberta (UNA) issued a statement saying, "UNA supports the health care workers who are defending the principle of public health care and opposing the efforts of the Kenney government to undermine the public health care system and destroy thousands of jobs. UNA members will not do the work of other union members.

"The Government of Alberta has created this crisis in the midst of a global pandemic when it should be supporting health care workers who are risking their lives to keep Albertans safe," the UNA said.

Unifor

Unifor issued a statement giving its full support to the striking hospital workers. "In his brief time in office, Jason Kenney has criminalized dissent, imported the worst of American labour law, and made devastating cutbacks to public services during a pandemic. He must be stopped," said Gavin McGarrigle, Unifor Western Regional Director. "Unifor stands in solidarity with all of the health care workers standing up for their jobs and for public services."

United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 401

"Frontline hospital workers are taking action in protest against injustice and massive cuts to public health care that will impact all Albertans. As Alberta's union for food workers, the struggle of frontline health care workers during this pandemic is a struggle with which we empathize and understand.

"The right of workers to strike and withdraw labour in protest is the essential ingredient of a democratic society, and workers have always found ways of confronting injustice in the ways that they find most effective.

"It has been reported that striking workers are calling for job security against the outsourcing of their jobs to the private sector, addressing short-staffing issues, stopping the privatization of Alberta's public health care system, and no retaliation for taking a stand in defence of public health care. Their demands are about protecting the public interest during the pandemic, and once again, we see workers courageously leading the charge," UFCW Local 401 President Thomas Hesse said.

• An individual grievance is a complaint that an action by the employer has violated the rights of an individual as set out in the Collective Agreement, law or by some unfair practice. E.g., discipline, demotion, timesheets etc.
• A group grievance is a complaint by a group of individuals all affected the same way, e.g., all employees in a particular department.
• A policy grievance is a complaint by the Union that an action or failure or refusal to act by the employer is a violation of the Collective Agreement that could affect all members covered by the agreement.

• Continued support of member Return to Work after a leave
• Filed grievance for new IST hire around concerns related to Article 30 - Seniority
• Continued work on the two grievances filed in September; one related to denied timesheets and the other related to member appointments to GFC committees. Article 24., Step 2 meetings held on Nov 10. Awaiting response from employer
• Prepared Grievance Officer Report for November 14th AGM
• Received employer Letter of Expectations response to Art. 23 investigation meeting with the member and employer in October. No discipline pursued by employer at this time
• Worked to onboard and brief new CUPE National Representative on ongoing grievances/ arbitrations