EDMONTON -- More than 200 members of the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees (AUPE) are gathering in Edmonton this week to prepare for their upcoming bargaining negotiations.
"This is the first of three bargaining conferences that we're holding to really prepare our members for what we anticipate will be extremely challenging rounds of negotiations starting early next year," AUPE President Guy Smith told CTV News Edmonton.
"This is about gathering our members and our leaders and our activists to talk about how we can build out strength to be able to support the negotiations process and if necessary, be prepared to take action if we're unable to get a negotiated settlement," he added.
Dozens of AUPE collective agreements will be up for renewal at the end of this year and the beginning of 2020. The three largest are with Alberta Health Services and the government of Alberta.
This is the first time Alberta's largest union will be negotiating with Jason Kenney's UCP government.
"Even though Jason Kenney said the front lines wouldn't be affected, we're already seeing it and we anticipate that will just get worse as time moves forward," Smith said.
AUPE has more than 95,000 members with more than 100 collective agreements.
