We've mentioned earlier that SAIL is going to be somehow part of AUPE's upcoming annual convention. Of all the labour disputes AUPE is dealing with, somehow it is our little subsidiary, SAIL, that is a threat to this multi-million dollar organization.
How do we know this?
Because it's in their convention documentation.
The first place we see AIL mentioned is right in the Officer's Report, from AUPE President, Guy Smith. It doesn't come up until page 13, which opens with:Building AUPE From the InsideWe have taken our issues, mostly created by the Government itself, to the streets, to the public, to the media, to the labour board and to the courts. Our public profile, awareness and credibility are at an all-time high.
Obviously, AUPE has been engaged in high profile and well-publicized struggles over the past year.
All of that is great news for AUPE and our members, who rely upon us to be a recognized and respected organization in the public domain.
Their public profile and credibility are at an all time high? A recognized and respected organization? Ahahahahahaha!!! Thanks to what AUPE has chosen to do to our home, we've come to learn that AUPE is held in the worst regard of all the unions in Alberta - including by other unions! Seeing what they are like outside our home, we can see why. If this is their "all time high," I hate to think how bad it was before.
But then, I somehow don't think all 83,000 AUPE members have any clue what's been happening here, and what AUPE picketers have been doing in their name.
Including Guy Smith, himself. Many times. Such as on Sept. 10, when this photo was taken.
You know what else was going on at the back of the Artspace parking lot?
When we got to see Deb Arcand verbally abusing a SAIL user members. This member had talked to a few people back there, but only Deb Arcand got visibly aggressive with her.
Oh, look... Who's that, right behind her? Why, that looks like VP, Mike Dempsey.
Yeah, he's been here many times. You can watch how they were while posing for a photo opp in front of our home on this video, here. Or read about it here.
The part about SAIL is towards the end of page 13, and it was clearly written some time ago. Let's take a closer look at it...
Bargaining continues to be a huge challenge. The logjam of negotiations resulting from the standoff with the Government started to break with some post-secondary, municipal, and boards and agencies contracts being successfully resolved. However, many tables remain unresolved and will require increased vigilance and member engagement and involvement.
Increased vigilance? Member engagement and involvement?
Why, Guy? Why does SAIL threaten AUPE so much? What is it about this tiny, non-profit, volunteer run company that is so important that AUPE will go to such great lengths to either conquer it or destroy it?
One bargaining table in particular deserves comment. One of our smallest, 27 members
... you mean 29, right? There were 29 SAIL employees when the strike started. Only 11 of which, at most, have been even seen picketing Artspace.
(mostly nursing attendants),
Whoa, whoa, whoa. Hold it, right there.
Nursing attendants? When did this happen?
Their official job titles are Health Care Workers. They do home care. They do the same job that other home care workers that travel from house to house do, except they don't have to travel. They are not nursing attendants. They assist with personal care, meal preparation and do housekeeping. That's their job description. SAIL has an LPN to do the stuff they're not qualified for.
They are not nursing attendants.
at Supports for Artspace Independent Living (SAIL) in Edmonton have been locked out since May.
Funny. Hey, Guy; did you forget that they walked off the job, first? They went on strike on May 7. There was no lockout until May 19.
These predominantly immigrant women
Oh, gotta play the immigrant and gender cards! Because, remember folks, where you come from and your reproductive organs are the most important things about you. At least according to AUPE, it seems. I mean, it's not like Artspace doesn't have people from all sorts of ethnic backgrounds, while the AUPE executive has been described as almost completely male, stale and pale.
Having gone through AUPE's Youtube videos, these are cards they've been playing for years, too. I mean, hasn't anyone else noticed by now that the only POCs on the picket lines are people on the bottom of the AUPE totem pole?
have shown exceptional strength
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| Striking SAIL employee, verbally abusing a replacement worker. |
and determination
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| Striking SAIL employees and AUPE staff verbally abusing a self-managed-care worker. |
through a very difficult struggle
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| Striking SAIL employee and others, harassing people inside the security vehicle. |
in which they not only had to endure the employer’s negative attitude (somewhat expected in a labour dispute);
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| Striking SAIL employee verbally abusing a SAIL user member inside the DATS bus. |
but also the disrespect shown by clients and residents.
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| Striking SAIL employee threatening a self-managed care worker, and former co-worker. |
This has been countered by staying strong
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| AUPE organizer, David Malka, with air raid siren, verbally abusing the father of a sick child who asked him to stop the noise. |
and focused on the picket line
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| Striking SAIL employees and AUPE staff trespassing on Artspace property for a photo opp. |
and breaking down the barriers
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| Striking SAIL employee and AUPE staffers, while blocking a self-managed care worker on 94th St. for almost 1 1/2 hours. |
that the Employer, through rhetoric and misinformation,
is trying to use to discredit our members.
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| AUPE organizer harassing a SAIL user member trying to come home. |
I don't know, Guy. I think you and your picketers here at Artspace have been doing a pretty good job of discrediting AUPE yourselves. We've just had to put up with this for the past 5 months.
This could end any number of ways, and I hope to be able to provide an update at Convention.
You know what would be a great way for this to end?
By AUPE acknowledging that they've screwed up, withdraw all the frivolous litigation they are engaged in, and walk away.
I'm sure the SAIL board would be willing to look at some sort of severance arrangement or something for the SAIL staff or something. I don't know. That's up to them. What I do know is that AUPE has messed this up badly, has given themselves a black eye, and are just digging themselves in farther. They need to get over their over-inflated egos, kiss some SAIL board butt, and end this peacefully.
Leave.
Just. Leave.
But one thing we need to remember is that an injury to one is an injury to all
Well, this I could agree with - except that it is the picketers here at Artspace, and the AUPE management that has condoned, encouraged and taken part in actions against our community, that is injuring all the other AUPE members who have nothing to do with what's going on here.
and these few, brave members need to be supported in their ongoing struggle.
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| Striking SAIL staff blocking Artspace members who are not SAIL users, nor Board members. |
Yeah, Guy.
Real brave.
They sure do need to be supported in their ongoing actions at our home, against people who have nothing to do with the labour dispute, but just happen to live here, or harassing SAIL user members, people with PTSD and other non-SAIL user members who have their own health struggles made worse because of you all.
Right.
Meanwhile, on pages 18 and 19 of the convention document, Mike Dempsey dedicated a portion of his report directly to SAIL.
SAIL Inc. Lockout
As I write this, 22 health care aides at Supports for Arts Independent Living Inc. have been on strike/locked out for three full months.
Well, at least he got the title right, but Mike; it was 29 SAIL staff, not 22.
We also now know how long ago this was written; it's now past 5 months since the staff walked away from their jobs.
Unfortunately it all looks too familiar. Health care.
Y'know, since this has started, we've noticed that AUPE has been targeting the health care industry. Which is why we've all become convinced that AUPE has its own agenda to gain control of it.
Lowest paid.
Nope. Not at SAIL, that's for sure.
Women (mostly).There it is! The gender card. You knew it was coming, right?
Visible minorities (mostly).
Oh, and there's the race card!
Just a thought. If SAIL Inc and SAIL user members were really racist and sexist, do you think they would have hired all these female, immigrant people of colour in the first place?
Why is it that we continue to see the most labour unrest in the richest province in Canada among our poorest paid members?
I don't know, Mike. Maybe it's because no other province has the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees instigating all these labour disputes?
Just a hunch.
And the highest executive salaries in the same department?
Good question, Mike.
What's your executive salary?
Something’s desperately rotten in Denmark, folks. Human rights violations,
You mean like picketing people's private homes, making them feel like hostages, causing physical and psychological trauma through the use of intimidation, noise, aggressive behaviour, holding illegal block parties, etc.?
pay equity issues. Take your pick.
Uh huh.
I visit the line to encourage the members whenever I am in Edmonton,
Yes. We've noticed.
and I am proud of our sisters holding strong in the face of continued physical and verbal abuse.
The only physical and verbal abuse we've seen, Mike, is from AUPE picketers. You should know. You've been there while it's been happening.
Still not enough for you?
Then check out the videos. Don't forget to come back later, because more are still slowly being added.
But enough is enough.
Yes, it is.
Yet AUPE is still picketing our home.
Why is that, Mike? It's not like they're accomplishing anything, other than making AUPE look worse and worse.
These strikes occur mostly at assisted living facilities of one type or another
Artspace is not a facility.
Artspace Housing Co-op is made up of our private homes. It also happens to have strong percentage of adapted units and an in-house care company to provide for their needs, thereby allowing them to live independently, rather than in an assisted living facility. It is these people with disabilities who fought, more than 20 years ago, to create Artspace in the first place, so that they would NOT have to live in a facility.
That's the whole purpose of SAIL. So that people with disabilities can live independently in their own homes, and have the autonomy that allows them to decide who provides them with the care they need, rather than someone else.
It is thanks to them that the rest of us non-SAIL user members can also have affordable housing and be part of a dynamic community.
AUPE seems to be doing everything it can to destroy what they fought to hard for.
and under this current PC administration, I don’t see the situation improving overall and it won’t as long as this realm of health care is still allowed to be privatized.Privatized health care.
This is something I've heard elsewhere.
AUPE has not only redefined Artspace as a facility to justify picketing our homes, but they have apparently also redefined SAIL as privatized health care.
SAIL, which uses a care model developed in co-operation with AHS, which is funded entirely by AHS, requires AHS oversight, and is accountable to AHS, is somehow "privatized" health care.
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| Source |
I hope by the time you read this, that we have been successful at the Labour Relations Board, and have forced SAIL Inc.
Forced SAIL?
FORCED!
We knew that AUPE had no intention of accepting any of SAIL's offers that they could afford; anyone with half a brain could see that, but Mike just made it plain as day that they have no intention of acting reasonably.
They intend to continue the bullying tactics.
Their goal is to force SAIL to comply with their demands.
Once again, it's plain as day, that AUPE has it's own agenda going on here that has nothing to do with helping the striking staff, since their demands would force SAIL into bankruptcy, which would lose the SAIL staff their jobs.
But, hey - thanks for being publicly open about that, Mike.
Now, who is it that's supposed to be bargaining in bad faith, here? Because it sure as heck isn't SAIL.
to negotiate seriously with its employees,
SAIL tried that.
SAIL is now locked into a 2 yr contract with AHS. Their last offer still stands.
AUPE rejected all their offers.
I guess it's only "serious" negotiation if SAIL is "forced" to accept demands they can't afford.
and that they finally have a decent contract.
They could already have one.
Or they can get jobs somewhere else.
We're all free to do that. In fact, most of the SAIL staff has already done that.
The only ones dragging this out is AUPE.
FYI, they currently get about $4 an hour less than the industry standard,
Here we go again...
No. They don't.
When compared to equivalent jobs, such as other home care workers or places like Abby Road, which has a contract with CUPE, they are the HIGHEST paid.
and no benefits at all!
You know why they don't have benefits?
Because the staff chose not to have benefits. They preferred the high wages.
It turns out that the staff didn't just turn down benefits when they negotiated their contracts a couple of years ago (before they unionized). They HAD benefits. Some of the staff used them.
A lot, apparently. So much so, that the premiums went up.
From what we've learned, the staff asked to have the benefits removed because they were taking too much off their take-home pay.
They CHOSE to have that $19.50 and hour, without benefits, because with benefits, they'd be paid less - and $19.50 an hour was the most SAIL could pay them based on the funding they received, which is why wages were capped there.
What AUPE is now demanding is that they not only get paid more hourly than SAIL can afford - more than Abby Road is paying their LPNs, in fact - but to have benefits on to of that.
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| From contract between CUPE and Abby Road. |
Benefits packages don't come cheap.
SAIL's funding has to cover a lot of things besides wages. There's no way they can give that and still remain solvent. Anyone with even a modest understanding of how to budget responsibly can see that.
Mike and Guy aren't the only ones to talk about SAIL in preparation for the upcoming AUPE convention. VP Glen Scott has this to say:
Strike - The SAIL strike (Supports for Artspace Independent Living), if still on by Convention, will be in its 160+ day.
Hey... at least he's honest in saying the strike is still on, even with the lockout.
This has been a picket line that’s similar to many as far as the issue of an employer taking government funding and using it for the employer’s needs versus the clients’ needs,
Whoa, hold on there.
Glen, you do know what defamation is, right? Slander? I mean, AUPE has filed a SLAPP suit against our online supporters, so you should know better.
But then, false accusations against SAIL and Artspace members are hardly new.
and not providing the remuneration these 29 women deserve.
Well, at least he got the right number of staff.
But then there's that loaded term, "deserve."
Who decides what anyone deserves, Glen? AUPE?
SAIL has offered what it can afford. No company is under any obligation to pay anyone what they think they "deserve." Certainly not if it means they'll go out of business. That sort of intangible, amorphous concept cannot be applied to hard, financial decisions.
It does, however, make for good emotional manipulation.
It’s been challenging as we have been attempting to negotiate with a mostly volunteer boardFirst, it's an ALL volunteer board, and why does this make in more challenging? Especially when there are professional negotiators involved?
Well... SAIL has a professional negotiator. I don't know if I'd use term that to describe AUPE's negotiator, considering he's been our here, doing things like this.
You know what I'm sure has been really challenging?
For an all-volunteer board of a tiny, non-profit company trying to negotiate with a union that obviously has no intention of accepting anything they can actually afford, and intends to, as Mike Dempsey put it, FORCE them into accepting AUPE's demands.
who has been misled by their leadership
Hold on again.
Mislead by their leadership?
Who are they talking about?
SAIL is run by a volunteer board.
Some of the board are also SAIL user members.
The board answers to the user members, but also has to answer to AHS.
So who is this "leadership" that is supposedly misleading... whom? The SAIL board has a president; is he saying the president is misleading the board... which would include herself? Or are they saying AHS, who has oversight over SAIL, is misleading them? Or...
No clue.
Got no clue who he's talking about here.
who have refused to bargain with AUPE
Let's see if I get this right.
SAIL made several offers until the beginning of August, which is when their contract with AHS was finalized (that's right; AUPE took the staff on strike and demanded a contract before SAIL even had their new funding contract solidified), and now there's an offer on the table based on the current funding contract.
AUPE refuses the offer that SAIL can afford, then claims that it is SAIL that is refusing to bargain.
How does that work?
after many many attempts were made to find a way to come to terms.
Right... Let's see...
SAIL makes offer it can afford.
AUPE demands more than SAIL can afford.
Repeatedly.
That's what they call "many, many attempts" to "come to terms"?
Love the double use of "many." Like that makes a difference.
The employer has locked out these workers,
Well... yeah. After the workers tried to force their way back into SAIL on short notice, just before a long weekend, in an obvious attempt to disrupt user member care, and after user members already said they did not feel safe having the picketing staff in their homes, after seeing and hearing them on the picket line.
SAIL's priority is the care of user members. Not to get railroaded but the striking staff or AUPE and act against the best interests of the user members.
insulted, disrespected,
and misrepresented them, and the entire time these workers have remained patient, respectful and firm in their belief.
I am hopeful that the truth will come out about how this organization has misused public funding;
You know, it's a good thing SAIL is not the sort to sue people for defamation, because those are some very serious accusations.
the real truth is the leaders of the SAIL board have not been up front in bargaining.
Once again, who are these "leaders of the SAIL board" that Glen is talking about?
It seems obvious that Glen has no understanding of SAIL and how it's run. That doesn't seem to stop him from making slanderous accusations, though.
Like many other Artspace members, we've talk to the SAIL board - they are our friends and neighbours, and we have known them for years. They have always been honest, transparent people of integrity.
They have not been transparent in their spending practices
Actually, yes, they have been transparent - including about past problems, some of which they have corrected and some of which are still being worked on.
What no one expected was for AUPE to deliberately twist things around to accuse our friends of fraud - and even extend those accusations to all Artspace members, and even people who don't live here at all.
and the ones that stand to lose the most in this are the residents of SAIL.
Uh, Glen?
There are no residents of SAIL.
SAIL is not a facility.
SAIL is a company with an office in the Artspace co-op.
I want to thank all the members of AUPE and the public who have come out to support these 29 AUPE members.Who have obviously not been properly informed about what's going on here, and how they are picketing our private homes, and contributing to the abuse of Artspace members.
As far as we can tell, AUPE has no real interest in the actual SAIL staff - they are obviously okay with forcing SAIL into bankruptcy - through frivolous litigation, if necessary - even if it means the SAIL staff lose their jobs.
It's not the replacement workers that are "stealing" their jobs. It's AUPE.
Oh, but it doesn't end there!
Karen Weiers as a report, too, and she mentions SAIL, too.
No surprise. She's been here more than anyone else among the AUPE executives.
Oh, for crying out loud, Karen! For someone who's been here as often as you have, couldn't you at least gotten the number of striking staff right?
Bargaining – There seemed to be a backlog of tables in negotiations when Government Services members stood strong against this Employer. Once an agreement was settled there, then interestingly enough many other negotiations in Education, Healthcare and Boards and Agencies were settled as well. In AUPE, we are constantly going into negotiations, so again if it takes all of us to stand together to ensure all front line workers receive a fair contract that is what we must do. Currently at the time of this writing we are seeing a labour dispute at SAIL (Supports for Artspace Independent Living). They are a small group of 22 members (currently locked out) that have been out for 108 days and still standing strong. Everyone’s agreement is important! I continue to stand proud on this line beside these workers in their effort to obtain a fair contract where wages are standardized and benefits (they currently have none!) become part of an agreement.
And considering you've been there for stuff like this...
... I really don't see that you've got anything to be proud of.
I won't bother going over the whole lack of benefits thing again.
Where else is SAIL mentioned?
Oh, here we go. Page 33, in the Anti-Privatization Committee report.
Because, like their inability to understand that Artspace is not a facility, that no one "resides" in the SAIL office, and that this is our private home, they also can't seem to figure out that a company that runs under the auspices of AHS, is funded entirely by AHS and is financially accountable to AHS, is part of the public health care system.
There are a few other passing references to SAIL, but these alone are enough to tell use that during AUPE's 38th Annual Convention, a great deal of time and energy is going to be dedicated to the destruction of a tiny, in-house, non-profit, volunteer run, publicly funded, care company.
