FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 31, 1998

EDMONTON -- The Capital Health Authority and the provincial government must share responsibility for the latest hospital strike in Edmonton, says Les Steel, Secretary Treasurer of the Alberta Federation of Labour.

"All of the nurses and nursing assistants who I talked to this morning would rather be at work," says Steel. "But they've been forced to strike by a combination of chronic under-funding from the provincial government and unfair management decisions made by the CHA."

About 1200 licensed practical nurses (LPNs) and nursing assistants (NAs) from all hospitals in the Edmonton area walked off the job at 7 a.m. this morning.

The striking workers are asking for an across-the-board wage increase that would reverse the 5.25 per cent rollback that was imposed on them by the Klein government in early 1994. They are also asking for a cost-of-living increase and parity with other hospital workers when it comes to things like overtime pay, vacations and pay differentials for weekend and shift work.

So far, the CHA has only agreed to increase the wages of a small number of LPNs at the top and bottom of the wage scale. All others have been offered a one time, lump sum payment, described by the CHA as a signing bonus.

"Clearly, the CHA is treating the LPNs and NAs as second-class citizens," says Steel. "Just a week-and-a- half ago, management agreed to increase wages for hospital support staff by nine per cent over three years. And earlier in the year, they agreed to raise wages for registered nurses by a similar amount. All the strikers are asking for is equal treatment."

Steel says the CHA's offer is "an insult" to valuable hospital workers who, for the past four years, have been asked to work harder and harder for less and less.

But Steels says that the CHA is only part of the problem.

"When it comes right down to it, the real villain in this story is not the CHA and it's certainly not the strikers," he says. "The real problem is provincial funding cuts. The time has clearly come for Ralph Klein and his ministers to spend more of the province's huge budget surplus on health. If they don't, the quality of our health care system will continue to deteriorate and labour unrest will continue to grow."