PrintDreams come true, Heather Smith tells United Nurses AGM, but only with hard work and engaged members
Over the past year, United Nurses of Alberta and its members made a difference, in big ways and small, UNA President Heather Smith told the opening session of the union’s 38th annual general meeting this morning.
One of the biggest ways was when UNA members, and many other Albertans, took to heart the theme of the last Alberta Federation of Labour convention to “dream no little dreams” and elected an NDP majority government on May 5, she said.
But there’s plenty more work to do, Smith reminded the 879 UNA members, guests, staff and associate members in the hall today at the Edmonton EXPO Centre.
“On election night … I thought, dreams do come true! It only took us 20 years of coalition building, too many rallies to count, creative campaigns and hope that a better future is possible,” she observed.
“All of our struggles, our resistance against forces that have attempted to trample the public good, our organizing, our investments in socially minded organizations … had paid off!”
But that is not the end of it, Smith cautioned, telling how on May 6 she made certain she had kept a copy of the Alberta NDP’s election platform. “Because electing a different government is only the first step,” Smith explained. “Keeping the government accountable will be our job over the next three and a half years.” The same rule applies to the Oct. 19 federal election, she added.
Among a long list of UNA successes since the last AGM, Smith pointed to the legal proceedings initiated by the union against the former minister of health for not upholding the regulations of the Nursing Home Act, which require a Registered Nurse on site at all times. “And the current minister of health has acknowledged that our interpretation of the regulations is correct and Alberta Health Services is obligated to ensure compliance.”
Health Minister Sarah Hoffman will address the UNA AGM tomorrow afternoon.
Smith pointed to the number of UNA members now in influential jobs:
- Jerry Macdonald, president elect of the College and Association of Registered Nurses of Alberta
- Cameron Westhead, former Executive Board member, MLA for Banff Cochrane
- Danielle Larivee, former local president, MLA for Lesser Slave Lake and, as of last week, minister of municipal affairs and advanced education
- Plus, of course, Rachel Notley, former UNA Labour Relations Officer, now the … premier of Alberta!
So, Smith summed up, “we did make a difference!”
However, she cautioned, some things have not changed – at least for the better.
Alberta Health Services and Covenant Health continue to push ahead with a series of workforce strategies with names like CoAct, Workforce Transformation, Path to Home, Scheduling Optimization, Patient First and People Strategy “supposedly creating a better health care system.”
In reality, said Smith, these schemes “have increased substitution and dilution of skill mix, increased moral distress and increased jeopardy for patients.”
“To diminish resources, spreading thinner and thinner professional nurses while expecting higher outcomes is ludicrous,” Smith stated. “They suggest they are making these changes to improve patient care. Why aren’t they honest and say their intention is to cheapen the cost of providing care?”
It would seem that to these major employers, “evidence is irrelevant,” Smith added. “The bottom line is money!”
UNA will continue to be, as the 2015 AGM theme puts it, “Here for Nurses,” Smith said, pointing to the union’s aggressive response to the recent decision by AHS at South Health Campus in Calgary to unjustly discipline and publicly humiliate more than 40 employees.
Indeed, UNA Labour Relations Director David Harrigan said in his report to the AGM, which followed Smith’s remarks, that some AHS managers are now acting as if “they no longer believe they have to be accountable for their actions.”
Moreover, he told the AGM, with the government rewriting essential services legislation to meet the requirements of a 5-2 Supreme Court of Canada ruling in January, “it is possible they will not be as interested in reaching agreements as they have been.”
This means, he said, UNA’s “No. 1 role is going to be member engagement.”
AHS will be held accountable for its recent approach to labour relations, Smith vowed. “This past year, Professional Responsibility Concerns have been advanced to the CEO in record numbers and if Vicki Kaminski won’t address our concerns for patient and staff safety, we will go to the newly appointed Alberta Health Services Board.”
So while a couple of dreams have come true in 2015, she said, “my dreams for safe staffing for all nurses in every practice setting; my dream of a robust, comprehensive public health system, inclusive of pharmacare, home care and encompassing safe seniors' strategy; my dream of a just society – those dreams are not yet a reality.
“But our experience is proof that with perseverance and commitment we can make yesterday’s dreams today’s reality,” Smith concluded. “Never give up! Never surrender!”
