Happy New Year

Wishing everyone a very Happy New Year.

123Tagged.com - More Happy New Year 2015 Comments

May 2015 be a year of growth and peace for you all.

Holiday Wishes

Merry Christmas to all, with a special Thank You to all those who supported us over this difficult time.  You are much appreciated!

Media Release: Dispute Resolved

We now have a copy of the media release put out by SAIL.      

-MEDIA RELEASE-

Labour Dispute Resolved Between SAIL Inc. and AUPE

For Immediate Release (Edmonton, Alberta)

Tuesday, December 16, 2014

The labor dispute between the home care company Supports for Artspace Independent Living Inc. (SAIL) and the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees (AUPE) is over.  A mutually agreed upon settlement has been reached. 

SAIL Inc. wishes AUPE and its members all the best in their future endeavours.

   

Since 1990 SAIL Inc. has provided a consumer driven, self-directed model of homecare to user members. SAIL is managed by a volunteer Board of Directors.  User-members live in their own apartment or condominium at Artspace Housing Co-op.  Artspace is a vibrant 88 unit Co-op that offers housing to a diverse community of 180 people, including people with disabilities and seniors. Up to 30 Co-op members use the home care services of SAIL. Each user-member of SAIL is responsible for directing the home care staff as to how best to meet their needs. The user-member also has a say as to when their care time is scheduled.  SAIL’s unique model of home care offers maximum independence to the user members.

Media coverage: Edmonton Journal

It took a while, but news of the labour dispute at our home ending has finally been reported.  Here is an article from the Edmonton Journal.

Seven-month labour dispute ends at Edmonton housing co-opBy Keith Gerein, Edmonton Journal December 16, 2014

The story is nice and neutral; a media win, I'd say.  There were a couple of things that should probably have a bit of clarification, or at least a fleshing out.  These are likely due to word count limitations and lack of information than anything else.

A labour dispute at the Artspace Housing Co-operative has ended after more than seven months.

Two hundred and nineteen days, so be exact.

To clarify, yes, the dispute was AT the co-op, but not WITH the co-op.

Alberta Union of Provincial Employees spokesman Tyler Bedford said a settlement was reached between the union and the non-profit group that manages home care services

Company, not group.  SAIL Inc. is a non-profit company, run by a volunteer board, and is a subsidiary of Artspace Housing Co-op Inc.  It's a niggling point, but there is a legal difference.

 for about 30 residents of the apartment co-op.

Apartments and townhouses. The townhouses are across the street from the high rise, and SAIL user members, who are all living independently in their own private homes, might be in either.  There are anywhere from 130-180 people living here.  Like any other residential building (or buildings, in our case), it can change.   At the moment, all units are occupied, so we're at the high end of the scale.  The number of SAIL user members is a very small portion of the total population of the co-op.

Terms of the deal are confidential but the result is the health care aides represented by AUPE will not be returning to work at the co-op at 93rd Street and 101A Avenue. 

Another niggling detail.  The staff did not work at the co-op.  They worked at the SAIL office, which is in unit 103 of the high rise.  From there, they would go to people's homes to provide care.  Those homes happen to also be in Artspace, but they did not work "at" Artspace.  

When you have spent much of your life fighting to be able to live independently, this is a very important detail.  The home care staff went from the employer's office to people's private homes.  

Let's put it this way.  If a person needing home care, provided by AHS, had an apartment in any of the other high rises here in Edmonton, no one would say the home care workers were working "at" the apartment building, but at that person's apartment.   The landlord of the building would not be considered the employer or the place of employment.  The fact that the worker would need to pass through common areas, such as hallways and elevators, or use shared amenities, such as laundry rooms or garbage chutes, does not change that.  

So what this sentence should be saying is that the staff would not be returning to work at SAIL, not "the co-op."

... but the employees were then locked out by their employer, known as Supports for Artspace Independent Living (SAIL).

Known as??

What a strange thing way to put it.  

Picket lines have been present outside the building ever since.

To be fair to AUPE, that's not quite true.  They were here on Remembrance Day, but stopped coming when the hearing with the Labour Board started the next day.  They stayed away until Nov. 23 - day 200 - when they had another party, then picketed for two more days.  Aside from the odd day they didn't show up over the previous 6 months, the last time there was picketing seen at Artspace was Nov. 25.

Also, they would hang out at either the high rise or the townhouses, or at the cul du sac North of the above ground parking, so this is where the writer should have said "the co-op" instead of "the building."  It's unlikely the writer would have known this.

The non-profit group has been using replacement workers to tend to residents’ needs,

Let's try that one again; "The non-profit company ... to tend to user members' needs."  

 

Thanks, Keith Gerein, for doing a rather good job in covering this announcement.  Certainly better than most of the coverage we've had over the past 7 months!

Pleased to share

Today, we received the following notice, which we are pleased to share.

The labour dispute is over. We look forward to resuming our lives in our wonderful and peaceful community.

That's about all we know right now.

Many thanks to all who have supported us.

An Update:

Regarding the labour dispute between AUPE and SAIL, discussions are under way and things are looking positive.

The blog is coming down as a sign of good faith while these discussions proceed.

We are hopeful that a formal press release will be issued by SAIL and AUPE once the matter is resolved.

Thankyou to all who submitted their stories, video, and photographs to the Artspace Under Siege blog.

Spin, spin, spin

One of the things that has been most difficult for a lot of people living here in Artspace is going from an intentional community that can only function properly through open communication, volunteerism and honesty, to dealing with an organization that takes things and spins them around to mean something completely different than they really do.  Like when AUPE non-lawyer, William Rigutto, ranted outside the high rise for some 2 hours, during which he, and others, yelled in the street about financial information shared in confidence during negotiations and made all sorts of wild accusations.  During this time, he questioned why SAIL has a contingency fund which, over time, he re-defined as a profit, and even claimed that SAIL thought of this as profit. 

Because apparently he knows what a company thinks?  Or that he knows what a volunteer board of half a dozen people thinks? 

Some of us were told that, if the audit of SAIL's finances confirmed the numbers board members had been trying to tell AUPE all along, this strike would be over.  There would be no reason for the labour dispute to continue.

Well, the audit did confirm SAIL's finances, and AUPE is still here.  Not only that, but they've gone and tried to spin things to make it sound like the audit confirmed what AUPE has been claiming, instead, then making more accusations against SAIL.

Look.  We may be mostly people on low incomes, but we do understand budgeting, and we do understand financial responsibility.  We certainly know what it's like to live with all the rules and regulations that come with public funding.  We're living in a co-op, for crying out loud.  Everything about living in a co-op is determined by rules and regulations set by others that we must meet.

Instead of accepting what the audit has shown, AUPE has instead released another flier, making claims against SAIL.

Honestly, AUPE.  Do you really think we're stupid?

You guys couldn't even get it right in the headline.

"Financials released, SAIL mislead Artspace and its caregivers."

Hey!  AUPE!  "Artspace" doesn't have any caregivers.  Artspace has SAIL user-members.  About 30 of them.  SAIL hires the care givers, not Artspace.

You know this.  You've been told this repeatedly.  If you're going to accuse SAIL of misleading people, maybe you shouldn't do it by making erroneous statements right in your headline!

Unless this is just a bad use of sentence structure, at which point, get a better editor.  

Then the flier claims that SAIL does have "the ability to provide caregivers with a fair collective agreement."

Well... that's misleading.  Of course they have the ability to provide a collective agreement.  The problem is what AUPE considers a "fair" agreement.

Ah, but then they go on about how SAIL has "gathered" money by "hoarding public funds."  Surplus dollars.  They've got money in the bank, people!  The horror!

Well, first off, I have to say I'm really disappointed that the number is so low.  Unlike the general public, we are aware of the operating costs for SAIL, because we asked.  You know; what AUPE kept yelling at us to do, except most of us had already done it. 

Then they complain about things like how much money was used for paying security, which would never have been needed if AUPE hadn't been so aggressive outside of our homes.  Oh, and then they complained about "professional fees." 

Of course there's going to be professional fees.  They have to pay for accountants and lawyers and auditors and all those other people to do things that a volunteer board can't do themselves.

It's called "the cost of doing business" and is part of running a company responsibly.

Ah, now let's see how else this got spun.  This money, AUPE tells us, is "intended to fund care."

Well guess what, AUPE.  We know full well that for user members to get care, that involves expenses and administration and fees and rent and supplies and yes, hiring professionals and, if necessary, security to protect the people coming in to provide the individual care they need.  Wages are just part of what the funding is supposed to pay for. 

AUPE would have us believe that somehow, SAIL is supposed to negotiate wages on one time (we hope) events like hiring necessary security, and on any "surplus" they might have. 

You can't budget based on "surplus."  Anyone who manages a simple household income knows this. 

Oh, and they're still pushing that "industry standard" line, when 1) there is no industry standard and 2) the SAIL staff were already being paid more than equivalent home care workers.

No, AUPE.  It's not SAIL that has mislead anyone.  Spin things all you want; it doesn't change the fact that the audit confirmed what SAIL had been saying all along.

So why are you still here?