‘Extremely frustrated and angry:’ Zero wage increases for Alberta teachers, nurses in arbitration rulings – 2020-01-10

Teachers and nurses will not be receiving any new wage increases after arbitration rulings came down Friday. The rulings come after the Alberta Teachers’ Association and the United Nurses of Alberta were hoping for wage increases and the province sought a two to five per cent rollback.

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ATA president Jason Schilling said Friday going into the arbitration hearing they were hoping for a three per cent increase for each year of the contract. “I am extremely frustrated and angry at this decision. I think the association had a really strong argument in the arbitration process and I was confident that we would see a reasonable increase to our salaries,” Schilling said. Since 2012, Alberta teachers have received only one new wage increase to their general salaries.

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The arbitration hearings with the UNA — which represents more than 30,000 registered nurses, registered psychiatric nurses and other health-care workers — were held on Dec. 4 and 5 in Edmonton. In his judgement, arbitrator David Jones — who was also the arbitrator in the ATA’s hearing — wrote, “no change to wage rates is justified in the third year of the current collective agreement, particularly given the prevailing general economic conditions in the province, as well as the current comparative continuity and stability of nurses’ employment and the absence of any relevant other public sector settlements that would indicate either an increase or a decrease to salaries.”

Read the full article here:  ‘Extremely frustrated and angry:’ Zero Wage Increases For Teachers, Nurses in Arbitration Rulings

Shaughn Butts – https://edmontonjournal.com/news/politics/extremely-frustrated-and-angry-zero-wage-increases-for-teachers-nurses-in-arbitration-rulings