{"id":295166,"date":"2025-11-20T09:37:17","date_gmt":"2025-11-20T09:37:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/295166\/"},"modified":"2025-11-20T09:37:17","modified_gmt":"2025-11-20T09:37:17","slug":"alberta-hospital-workers-issues-strike-notice-aupe-says-picketing-to-begin-saturday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/295166\/","title":{"rendered":"Alberta hospital workers issues strike notice; AUPE says picketing to begin Saturday"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Editor\u2019s note: A previous version said the strike is scheduled to start at 8 a.m. Saturday. The story has since been corrected.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/1762614923_240_70c8fc80.png\" alt=\"\" style=\"position:absolute;width:1px;height:1px\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\"\/><\/p>\n<p>The union representing 16,000 Alberta hospital workers, including licensed practical nurses and health-care aides, says its members are set to hit picket lines this weekend.<\/p>\n<p>Sandra Azocar, president of the <a href=\"https:\/\/globalnews.ca\/tag\/alberta-union-of-provincial-employees\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Alberta Union of Provincial Employees<\/a>, or <a href=\"https:\/\/globalnews.ca\/tag\/aupe\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">AUPE<\/a>, says it gave strike notice Wednesday morning to <a href=\"https:\/\/globalnews.ca\/tag\/alberta-health-services\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Alberta Health Services<\/a>, after bargaining fell apart over wages.<\/p>\n<p>Job action is to begin at 8:30 a.m. on Saturday, with pickets outside major hospitals across the province.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThese decisions are never easy,\u201d Azocar told a news conference Wednesday in Edmonton.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut we reached a point where we had no choice \u2026 today, we\u2019re standing up not just for (workers), but for the future of our health care in this province.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n<p>About 98 per cent of members who voted earlier this month approved the job action.<\/p>\n<p>Contract talks have been ongoing since March 2024.<\/p>\n<p>Azocar said about 78 per cent of union members are essential workers, meaning not all would legally be permitted to strike, so they would rotate shifts on picket lines.<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\tMore on Health<br \/>\n\t\t\tMore videos\n\t\t<\/p>\n<p>Some elective surgeries have already been cancelled due to the impending job action, Azocar added, and more may be cancelled if a strike drags on.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" width=\"170\" height=\"225\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/healthiq.jpg\" alt=\"Receive the latest medical news and health information delivered to you every Sunday.\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\tGet weekly health news<\/p>\n<p>Receive the latest medical news and health information delivered to you every Sunday.<\/p>\n<p>The union said there\u2019s a wage gap of about nine per cent between what the government last offered and what workers are demanding. The province last offered a 12 per cent wage increase over four years.<\/p>\n<p>Finance Minister Nate Horner said in a statement the government is disappointed with the strike notice.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe AUPE was offered a fair and reasonable deal that was highly competitive with the other provinces across Canada,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRegardless, we want to assure Albertans that AHS has contingency plans in place in case of a strike \u2026 80 per cent of the LPNs and HCAs will continue working for the duration of the strike to support essential services, while only 20 per cent are legally permitted to withdraw services from non-essential services.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n<p>He said the government is committed to working with the union and Alberta Health Services to explore all options, resolve negotiations and avoid unnecessary health-care disruptions.<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\tTrending Now\n\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/globalnews.ca\/news\/11533333\/donald-trump-tariffs-ad-pete-hoekstra-ambassador\/\" class=\"c-posts__inner\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"c-posts__thumbnail\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/1763631437_615_CP175028203.jpg\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"336\" height=\"224\" alt=\"\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t\tU.S. envoy warns Canada to \u2018seriously consider\u2019 avoiding anti-tariff ads\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/globalnews.ca\/news\/11531238\/family-dead-istanbul-tourists-poison-investigation-hotel\/\" class=\"c-posts__inner\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"c-posts__thumbnail\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/1763631437_821_hotel-poison-turkey.jpg\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"336\" height=\"224\" alt=\"\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t\t11 arrested, more tourists hospitalized as Istanbul poisoning mystery deepens\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe strongly encourage the parties to come back to the table.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Horner said earlier this month that the union\u2019s counter-proposal would cost Albertans more than $2 billion.<\/p>\n<p>Alberta Health Services said it\u2019s aware of the strike notice and preparing for disruptions.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe recognize our staff\u2019s right to participate in legal job action,\u201d the agency said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur focus is on ensuring patients continue to receive the essential care and treatment they need.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It also criticized AUPE for speculating about cancelled surgeries.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAt this time, there have been no changes to operations, or any postponements in anticipation of the strike \u2026 should there be any direct patient impacts, patients will be notified directly.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Last month, the government used the notwithstanding clause to order 51,000 striking teachers back to work. The clause allows government to override certain Charter rights for up to five years.<\/p>\n<p>Azocar said it\u2019s a possibility the province could do the same to AUPE members.<\/p>\n<p>Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re also quite aware that we\u2019re ready to take a stand if that\u2019s what they choose to do,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>Horner has said it\u2019s \u201chighly unlikely\u201d the government would invoke clause in the AUPE labour action. He said the teachers strike was unique due to its size and complexity.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 With files from Lisa Johnson, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t&amp;copy 2025 The Canadian Press\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Editor\u2019s note: A previous version said the strike is scheduled to start at 8 a.m. Saturday. The story&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":295167,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[17225,133055,133056,49,48,84,44,714],"class_list":["post-295166","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-alberta-health-services","tag-alberta-union-of-provincial-employees","tag-aupe","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-health","tag-news","tag-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295166","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=295166"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295166\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/295167"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=295166"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=295166"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=295166"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}