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Fighting for first contract with giant American company.
Edmonton (23 July 2009) - The Health Sciences Association of Alberta (HSAA/NUPGE) has filed a strike vote application with the Alberta Labour Relations Board (ALRB) on behalf of its 900 DynaLIFEDx lab employees in Edmonton and across central and northern Alberta.
The union's application follows a "lengthy and fruitless" bargaining process that failed to produce an acceptable first collective agreement for the lab employees, says Elisabeth Ballermann, president of the 18,000-member union.
"DynaLIFEDx has responded to their employees' decision to form a union last summer by tabling a contract offer that does not come close to providing either the rights or the compensation that other laboratory professionals around the province currently enjoy," Ballermann says.
"As this employer has stated on numerous occasions during the negotiating process, they can afford to fairly compensate their employees – they don't want to."
Way below standard
The strike vote application followed a final offer from DynaLIFEDx that would leave its 900-member workforce, in total compensation, nearly 17% behind the provincial industry standard, including Calgary Lab Services and HSAA's provincial collective agreement.
"Throughout this process, DynaLIFEDx has maintained, that as a private lab corporation, they are somehow unique," Ballerman says.
"As a corporate entity of Borealis Investments and the Laboratory Corporation of America, which posted annual revenues of $4.5 billion in 2008, DynaLIFE is far from being unique in its desire to share its profits with its shareholders at the expense of its employees," she notes.
The labour board is expected to issue a decision on the union's strike vote application later this week.
If the application is successful, HSAA will conduct a strike vote. If the lab employees vote in favour of striking, HSAA must provide the employer with 72 hours notice before taking strike action at some point over the next 120 days.
DynaLIFEDx operates 36 labs across the province.
Should a strike or lockout occur, the impact would be serious. Eighty-five per cent of all medical diagnosis are based, in part, on tests undertaken by laboratory professionals.
NUPGE
The National Union of Public and General Employees (NUPGE) is one of Canada's largest labour organizations with over 340,000 members. Our mission is to improve the lives of working families and to build a stronger Canada by ensuring our common wealth is used for the common good. NUPGE