Letter to the Minister of Health

As picketers behaviour continued to disrupte the lives of everyone living in Artspace, attempts were made to reach out to politicians.  This letter was written by the president of the board responsible for SAIL, which is made up of volunteer members of Artspace.

Honourable Fred Horne
Minister of Health
208 Legislature Building
10800 - 97 Avenue
Edmonton, AB T5K 2B6

Dear Honourable Horne:

In October 2013 you wrote (AR 112050) to one of the three housing cooperatives and passed on your good wishes for continued success in providing quality care to Albertans. We were all tremendously appreciative of your support in ensuring these housing cooperatives could continue to have contracts with Alberta Health Services to deliver their unique, on-site consumer-directed home care models.

Artspace Housing Cooperative’s on-site home care corporation, Supports for Artspace Independent Living Inc. (SAIL) is requesting your support once again. SAIL employees began the process of unionization with AUPE over a year ago and a first collective agreement has still not been reached. On May 7 the employees went out on strike. AUPE has been provided with a copy of the new contract SAIL signed with Alberta Health Services commencing April 1, 2014. AUPE is fully aware that there isn’t sufficient funding available to meet their demands.

SAIL has a strong strike contingency plan and has replacement staffing in place delivering excellent care to the housing cooperative’s users of SAIL services. The service users tell us that they are highly satisfied with the care and it has exceeded the quality of the care previously provided. There have been no incidents and safe care has been delivered since the onset of the strike.

The threat to safety in service delivery for SAIL is AUPE and its tactics. As you know, AUPE is a giant organization with incredible resources. SAIL is a tiny non-profit organization run by a volunteer Board of Directors. AUPE has chosen to advance its agenda of unionizing the Home Care community service delivery sector by using SAIL as a means to an end. Issues for SAIL services include:
• AUPE organized picketers (including only a small number of our SAIL employees) are delaying the transport vehicles carrying replacement workers by as long as 1 hour causing intentional disruption to the services.
• AUPE organized picketers have formed their picket line in front of the Artspace Housing Cooperative which is the private home of the 30 SAIL service users, and 58 other families in the Artspace Housing Cooperative who having nothing to do with SAIL. Children going to school, people going to work as well as going in and out of the building with normal activities of daily living are being heckled and traumatized by the picketers who gather at 05:30 in the morning and do not leave until the late evening.
• AUPE picketers are intentionally making derogatory and morally repugnant remarks about the SAIL service users who can clearly hear the remarks from the windows of their homes. The service users now feel that they will never be in a position of being able to accept care from the striking employees again.

• On Thursday, May 15 AUPE gave 19 hours notice that the SAIL employees would return to work on Friday, May 16 at 07:00. There was no employee schedule in place to know what shifts would be covered for the long weekend and therefore SAIL had no choice but to refuse to permit the employees to return to work. AUPE intentionally created a completely unsafe and untenable situation which SAIL was forced to rectify by choosing to pay the SAIL employees not to return to work.

SAIL has learned from this experience that there isn’t legislation in the Alberta Labour Code that protects the unconscionable violation of the privacy, liberty and security of the most vulnerable people from being subjected to this type of treatment in their own homes. This is truly a unique and extraordinary circumstance. We request your support in asserting our rights as outlined in the general principles (Article 3) of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities; ensuring that the safety and well-being of the 30 SAIL service users is preserved. We would be pleased to meet with you and look forward to your support once again.

Sincerely,

Roxanne Ulanicki
President, SAIL Inc.
(780) 421-4552

cc: Premier Dave Hancock
Brian Mason, MLA for Edmonton Highlands-Norwood
Scott McKean, City Councillor for Ward 6