United Nurses of Alberta
700-11150 Jasper Avenue T5K 0C7 Edmonton, AB, Canada

The Alberta government's new measures aimed at curbing the spread of COVID-19 cases fall short of what's needed to avoid a crisis in hospitals and in the health-care system, Edmonton doctors say.

"Alberta needs leadership right now. We’re seeing the consequences of that void, and it’s not pretty."

"I will tell you that I have a lot of nurses coming to me breaking down. The long hours, the trauma, the overwhelming fear," said Rochelle Walker, the President of UNA Local 33 at the Royal Alexandra Hospital. "There is moral distress. They give their all and they feel like they didn't do enough. It is not uncommon for nurses to work through their breaks. Patient care always comes first and nurses regularly sacrifice their own needs," Walker said.

Lonee Rousseau, a registered nurse and the vice-president of the United Nurses of Alberta local at the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Edmonton, said the demands of hospital care during the pandemic has led to moral distress for workers. When you can’t provide the quality of care that you have in the past, it becomes that much harder to tell yourself you’re doing a good job When you can’t provide the quality of care that you have in the past, it becomes that much harder to tell yourself you’re doing a good job, Rousseau said.

Powerful imagery by Iranian artist Bozorgmehr Hosseinpour.

Alberta Health Services bargaining representatives have rejected in total a Memorandum of Settlement proposed earlier today by United Nurses of Alberta. UNA urgently called on employers to quickly negotiate a contract in order to achieve labour peace, stabilize the Alberta workforce, and focus on responding to the pandemic. But while AHS negotiators continued to press for a delay in bargaining, they refused to agree to two important issues facing the workforce:... - AHS has refused to halt eliminating nursing positions via attrition during COVID-19 - AHS refused to give an assurance they will not seek more rollbacks when negotiations commence again Clearly AHS and this government are more intent on pursing their agenda of rollbacks and reducing the workforce, even during a pandemic, than assuring a stable workforce to respond to the needs of Albertans, said UNA President Heather Smith. Despite our efforts to inform them, they appear to want to exacerbate the exhausting and unsafe staffing situations nurses confront every shift they work, she said. The fear and devastated morale of the workforce is irrelevant to them. As a result of the employer’s immediate rejection of the UNA proposal, she said, the UNA negotiations team cannot agree to pause negotiations until March 31, 2021. The next scheduled bargaining dates are December 14 and 15, she said. The UNA team has made it clear we are available to meet at any time, including weekends. With the assurance of stability in other provinces, we are very concerned we will face increasing workforce deficits as Registered Nurses and Registered Psychiatric Nurses who are threatened with massive rollbacks and job insecurity in Alberta seek employment elsewhere, she said earlier in the day.

Happy Nurse Practitioner Week to our colleagues and co-workers across Alberta. United Nurses of Alberta recognizes the important role that Nurse Practitioners play in Alberta’s health care system and we celebrate the work of our NP colleagues during Nurse Practitioner Week, November 8 to 14. #NPWeek

Alberta isn't doing enough to protect its most vulnerable. "The only way that we're actually going to get this under better control is if we significantly reduce the level of community transmission and make sure these homes have the proper staffing in place," said Dr. Samir Sinha, director of geriatrics at Sinai Health System and the University Health Network in Toronto.

Eighteen unions representing nearly 175,000 Alberta workers are calling on the province to adopt tougher measures to take on COVID-19. A province-wide mask mandate, adoption of the federal COVID-19 notification app and a ‘circuit-breaker’ lockdown are some of the demands included in the COVID-19 Crisis Resolution, drafted by the Alberta Federation of Labour. United Nurses of Alberta, Health Science Association of Alberta, Canadian Union of Public Employees and the United Food and Commercial Workers also among the unions that have signed off on the document.

Albertans rallied outside the Sheldon M. Chumir Health Centre in Calgary yesterday to show their support for health care workers and opposition to government cuts and privatization. Thank you to our health care heroes. We are all in this together. (Thanks to United Nurses of Alberta Local 211 (Calgary Community) for the photos)

People working while sick is going to continue happening until our governments, both at the provincial and federal level, start giving people more supports so they can actually follow the directions coming from public-health officials."

"After years of underinvestment, the Alberta government’s decision to further erode public health-care capacity by eliminating thousands of jobs is not only ill-advised in the midst of a global disease outbreak, it’s simply unconscionable," writes Linda Silas, President of the Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions (CFNU). "With over one million Canadians unemployed as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and millions more still reeling from its enormous impact, now is not the time for austerity." Read Linda's op-ed in today's Edmonton Journal.

The pay for plasma collectors have a global market and the products will go to the highest bidder, said UNA President Heather Smith. She called Bill 204 a major step backwards. The government is putting its ideology and desire to support profiteers above what is actually safe for Albertans and Canadians, Smith said. UNA is also concerned about the potential cost implications for healthcare providers, like Alberta Health Services, if free blood and plasma donations drop of...f and need to be purchased at a market dictated rate. It’s really important that people in this province speak up and say to this government that privatizing any element of our public healthcare is the wrong direction to go," Smith said.

Health care workers stick together because we know that health care is a team effort - and no one is disposable. UNA is proud to show solidarity and thanks to our coworkers from AUPE - Alberta Union of Provincial Employees HSAA - Health Sciences Association of Alberta and CUPE Alberta today outside the University of Alberta Hospital.

When it comes to our health care, Albertans will not be silenced.

Alberta nurses are being pushed to the limit. "Morale has never been lower and nurses are feeling like they’ve been disrespected by this government," said UNA Second Vice President Cam Westhead. "We’ve been short staffed even before the pandemic so things are even worse now," said Westhead. "We’ve got hospitals filling up with COVID patients and staff are being forced to self-isolate because they’ve been exposed and so nurses are working overtime."... Additional rallies happening in Athabasca, Calgary and Edmonton today. UNA members are encouraged to attend during their off-work time or breaks. Calgary - Chumir Health Centre at 11:00 am Athabasca - Athabasca Health Centre at 11:00 am - 1:00 pm Edmonton - U of A Hospital on 112th St at 12:00 pm Calgary - City Hall at 4:30 pm

United Nurses of Alberta continues to urge the provincial government to immediately adopt the federal government’s COVID Alert smartphone app in this province: https://bit.ly/3f9Th2U Contact tracing and exposure notification are key parts of an aggressive infection control effort. The federal COVID Alert app appears to work well and has widespread acceptance by Canadian provinces and territories. Only two provinces, Alberta and British Columbia have not yet adopted the app.

It was a big show of solidarity at 6:15 am as Albertans gathered outside the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Edmonton and Foothills Medical Centre in Calgary to show their support for nurses and health care workers at shift-change. Alberta nurses know that health care is a team and as we face the COVID-19 pandemic it is especially important that we stick together and stick up for each other.

United Nurses of Alberta has been notified by Alberta Health Services that emergency provisions of the Provincial Collective Agreement have been enacted in the Edmonton Zone. The provisions are being enacted in response to the surge in COVID-19 cases, outbreaks and hospitalizations in the Edmonton Zone and are aimed at addressing staffing challenges and the need for increased capacity in acute care units. Effective immediately, repatriation of employees who were previously re...deployed to COVID response areas will be paused and additional employees may be redeployed to further enable a response to the current surge situation. This applies to the entire Edmonton Zone, including the sites in the surrounding communities such as Leduc. UNA members with any questions or concerns should contact their Local Executive or Labour Relations Officer at 1-800-252-9394.

UNA members are working every day to care for patients, residents and clients while facing the challenges and risks of the COVID-19 pandemic. If you have any concerns or questions about safety in your workplace, contact UNA at 1-800-252-9394 to speak with a Labour Relations Officer.

So many nurses are telling us they’re not okay. They are exhausted, they are overworked, they are stressed, and on top of it not feeling appreciated at all," said UNA First Vice-President Danielle Larivee. That’s not sustainable. They are pushing themselves and at some point they are going to hit that wall.

UNA Local 1 President Diane Lantz said staff at the Peter Lougheed Centre are concerned about the relaxation in the visitor policy. Lantz said there are no restrictions now and there’s a worry about mask policies for patients. The staff are adhering to masking, but if you’re in close contact providing direct care you wear the masks but the patient doesn’t have to and that’s causing angst for nurses because you are in close contact with that person, Lantz said.

UNA President Heather Smith echoed the assessment of the local health-care system, saying that nurses are being mandated to work overtime as units go understaffed. "This is a call for help and a call to have recognition of what's happening because we don't want it to crash," Smith said.

UNA urges the Alberta government to be part of the national effort to control COVID-19 and to save Albertan lives by adopting the COVID Alert app immediately.

In my 20 years of nursing I’ve never seen morale so low as it is right now and this is in a middle of a pandemic, said Orissa Shima, President of Sturgeon Community Hospital UNA Local 85. It's unconscionable that they would be considering laying off nurses and other health-care workers because we all work as part of a team and no member is more important than the next in the team.