Significant Events in AUPE History and Current Issues Faced

This document discusses the significant events in the history of AUPE (Alberta Union of Provincial Employees) and the current issues faced by the union and its members. It explores the impact of these events on the union and its members, as well as the response of AUPE. The document also highlights the social issues addressed by AUPE.

PROJECT

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
SIGNIFICANT LIFE EVENTS.......................................................................................................3
Significant events in union history..............................................................................................3
Impact of these events on union and its members.......................................................................4
CURRENT ISSUES........................................................................................................................4
Current issues faced.....................................................................................................................4
Response to these issues..............................................................................................................5
Social issues.................................................................................................................................5
PERSONAL OBSERVATION........................................................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................1

INTRODUCTION
AUPE i.e. Alberta Union of Provincial Employees operates solely in the Alberta Province
and is the largest trading union of Alberta. The majority of employees represented by AUPE are
appointed in the public sector where approximately 25000 members are direct government
employees, around 55000 with the healthcare services and NPO facilities, 11000 with
educational institutions and 4000 with municipal government. It was initially set up in the year
1976 with the purpose of serving civil servants and ensuring that their rights are protected (Clyde
& Lee, 2011). When there was an increased unrest amongst the employees in various sectors
such as healthcare where the holiday entitlements were challenged or under the Alberta Liquor
control Board where employees went on a strike and ultimately they walked off their jobs. This
led to the formation of AUPE that served as a legal body for serving mainly the employees
belonging to different governmental sector. A year later, the decisions taken by AUPE were no
longer required to be approved by the government and the status of AUPE changed into an
unincorporated union body. AUPE now had the bargaining right for every group of employees
that it protected and since then the trade union has been constantly working for the purpose of
serving the employees and has achieved some recognizable feats since then.
SIGNIFICANT LIFE EVENTS
Significant events in union history
The first significant event occurred in the year AUPE was set up i.e. in 1976. In this year,
the government set up an Anti- Inflation Board here it was made illegal for employees to
negotiate the increase in wages and it was not allowed to contest the decisions of the government
for increasing salary beyond a certain limit. The government compared the single digit increase
in pay for public employees to the 47% pay raise for MLA's and this was protested by AUPE
under the name Apple and Oranges campaign (Beatty, 2010). This was challenged by AUPE
openly where the failure to make successful negotiation for public employees led them to strike
and hitting bricks ultimately leading to winning the strike thus increasing the number of
members that associated themselves with AUPE.
The second significant event was in 2007 regarding the rights of the labour and a major
campaign was launched by AUPE regarding the change in the labour laws. The union challenged
the existing labour laws stating that they were outdated, i.e. redundant and did not conform to the
rights of Woking people set up at an international level. The union proposed that the there must

be single law for unionized and public sector employees, the bargaining rights need to be full and
fair, union certification, ban in using strikebreakers etc. and these were largely supported even by
o9rgansatins who had earlier contradicted the ideology of AUPE making them successful.
Another significant event was the wildcat strike in year 2013 that began when two union
members were suspended because they showed concern regarding safety issues at Edmonton
Remand Centre (Koltutsky, 2019). This led to the formation of wildcat strike under which the
AUPE received huge support form correctional centres and various other organizations
ultimately leading to the government accepting to implement a new heath and safety framework
for the Edmonton Remand Centre and the employees ending the strike immediately.
Impact of these events on union and its members
Since AUPE has been operating for so many years, there have ben many significant
events that have affected the union severely. The union as a whole mainly got affected by the
number of members that were associated with them and thus their overall number of employees
that were governed (Barnetson, 2010). When there was a major win of the Union like in the year
1977 when they challenged the decision of prohibiting salary negotiation and won, the number of
members that were associated with the AUPE rose significantly but when AUPE failed to give
adequate protection to its employees at the time of privatization, there were huge dropouts in the
number of members associated with the organization.
On the level of individual members, it can be stated that the success or failure of the
strikes and protests carried out by AUPE affected their lives significantly because it could have
affected their jobs, and they would have turned either homeless or jobless if AUPE had failed
(Russell & et.al., 2016). Therefore, the trust that they place in AUPE imp0licitly before deciding
to walk out from jobs or going against the very organization s and superiors that they work for is
huge and as an individual this could cost them their life as well thus affecting them severely.
CURRENT ISSUES
Current issues faced.
There have been increased number of reports by members of AUPE that the workloads
have become unmanageable, and they are having to work short. The number of issues that the
employees are facing due to this are rising and the physical as well as psychological impact on
the employees is posing serious threats to their health.

The issue of segregating employees into either Operating Employees or Fixed Term
Employees and covering them under the benefits that they qualify for based on their employment
terms is also a major issue that has arisen (Smith & Holden, 2016).
Another current issue that the union is facing is related to the issue of bargaining unit i.e.
declaring AUPE as the bargaining unit between the employer and the employee is not adequate
but there are certain rights as well that are inherent to such bargaining unit.
Response to these issues.
In order to address the first issue of increased workloads, the union has developed a
Workload campaign and a separate committee is working on the issues that employees are facing
due to the increased working pressure (Cake, 2016). The committee will identify the historical
trends of the impact of such increased workload and then develop a strategy for lobbying the
government in order to address the changes regarding working schedules.
The second issue was of making the employees entitled to the benefits based on their
employment term and this was achieved by getting an agreement with the governors of Calgary
University and then the terms like salary rates, position, seasonal and regular employee rights
were awarded to the employees.
This was another pressing issue where many organizations failed to incorporate or
acknowledge the power of the trade union i.e. AUPE in the decision-making and the agreement
with the Government of The Province of Alberta helped the union in gaining adequate rights
related to the protection of the employees covered under their union and the limits to such rights
were also set.
Social issues.
The union has worked on a number of social issues such as redefinition or restructuring
of the labour laws, the wildcat strike emphasizing the need for reviewing the health and softy
framework of an organization etc., and rather than just protecting the rights of their own
members, Union has always worked towards empowering the all the workers of Alberta
(Rempel, 2019).
PERSONAL OBSERVATION
If I were an employee in the public sector department of Alberta, I would have definitely
enrolled myself in the AUPE as a member because they work hard to protect the rights of their
member and support their actions whenever the cause is justified. For instance, when the two

member of AUPE were suspended simply because they questioned their superiors, the union did
not back down and therefore the empowerment that the employees receive is very useful in
living a healthy life. Therefore, yes I would have been a member of the union definitely.

REFERENCES
Books and journals
Barnetson, B. (2010). Alberta's 2002 Teacher Strike: The Political Economy of Labor Relations
in Education. education policy analysis archives. 18(3). n3.
Beatty, S. (2010). Information commons, University of Calgary: Providing service through
collaboration and integration. Journal of Library Administration. 50(2). 145-159.
Cake, S. (2016). Worker Movement as a Union Issue: An Examination of Collective Bargaining
Agreements in the Construction Sector in Alberta, Canada. Canadian Journal of
Sociology. 41(3). 327-348.
Clyde, J., & Lee, J. (2011). Embedded reference to embedded librarianship: 6 years at the
University of Calgary. Journal of Library Administration. 51(4). 389-402.
Koltutsky, L. (2019) Academic Freedom, Shared Governance and the Role of Post-Secondary
Education.
Rempel, J. (2019). Alberta. Canadian Parliamentary Review. 42(3). 58.
Russell, J. and et.al., (2016). Annual General Meeting Canadian Committee on Labour History
University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, 31 May 2016.
Smith, C. W., & Holden, M. (2016). Organizational well-being: Current practices, research, and
recommendations.
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