AUPE Local 60 History by Don Ungarian and Jim Wilson
The history of our Union Local is told to give you some insight on when the Union was
formed at the Alberta Research Council and the important events that have occurred in
labor relations with the ARC. As you will see, the formation of a Union and the resulting
collective agreements they negotiate for us just don’t happen. It takes many years of hard
work by our active members to achieve the results that others will benefit from in the
future.
The Alberta Union of Provincial Employees Local 60 represents technical,
administrative, and support staff in the Alberta Research Council as specified by the
Labour Certificate issued under the PSERA and covered by the collective agreement.
The Local has a long history with AUPE and its predecessor, the Civil Service
Association of Alberta (CSAofA).
When the Alberta Research Council was formed in 1921 (known then as the Research
Council of Alberta), there were very few employees let alone a Union to represent them.
It wouldn’t be until the late 1950s that staff were to form an employee association under
the CSAofA without bargaining rights. The CSAofA could only make recommendations
to the government cabinet for any pay increases and improvements to their benefit
package. This was the practice of the day with provincial government employees ever
since the CSAofA was formed in 1919. Only employees of the government were
members.
In 1963, employees of the ARC for the first time were in a position to bargain
collectively with the government. At that time the Local was called Branch 31 of the
CSAofA. The first Chairperson of the Branch was Gerry Spratt. Nick Melnyk was the
next Chair and then later Bernie Laydon who held the position for four consecutive terms
up to 1970. Bernie also served on the Provincial Executive of the Union for our Local
from 1970 until his retirement in 1986. He later became the first Life Member of AUPE
from Local 60.
From 1970 to 1976, Bill Bristow was the Chair. In this time many improvements were
made to the collective agreement, some that are still present in our agreement today. In
1976, a major change occurred that was to see the end of the CSAofA and a new
beginning with the formation of the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees. The Public
Service Employees Relations Act (PSERA) was passed in the legislature outlining
conditions that employees would have to abide by working in the provincial government.
At this time the Branch was renamed to AUPE Branch 60.
President Bill Broad, long time President of the CSAofA, gave way to John Booth, our
first President in AUPE. Many disputes with the government were to result under
PSERA in 1970s, culminating in a strike by many AUPE members in 1980. Strikes by
government employees under PSERA are illegal, but that didn’t stop members from
fighting for better pay and working conditions.
In 1976, Branch 60 members at Clover Bar participated in a one-day national strike
against wage and price controls that were imposed by the federal government. This was
the only time that the Local had gone out on strike.
In the late seventies, Rose Belfry was briefly the Chairperson then Roy Swenson was the
Chair for three years giving way to Joe Hruschak in 1980. Joe served for three years in a
time when AUPE was to go through a restructuring on how it operated as a Union. Many
disputes resulted at that time amongst the members on how AUPE was to be organized,
what powers the Provincial Executive had, and how the Executive performed. In 1983, a
five-day convention was held to enact a new constitution for the Union. This resulted in
the Provincial Executive reducing in size, all bargaining units were renamed Locals, and
many other changes occurred as to how the Union operated. Our bargaining unit was
now called Local 60. The Local during this time retained its status as an autonomous
Local. To this day, Local 60 is not affiliated with any other bargaining units.
Don Ungarian was the Chair from 1983 to 1991. Many changes occurred with the
collective agreement during this time including; the elimination of the old classification
system to what we have today, inclusion of casuals in the contract, some very good pay
increases, and the elimination of the increment system. The ups and downs of collective
bargaining were evident, not only during this period, but following up to the present day.
Downsizing at the ARC started to occur in 1987 resulting from budget cuts and shifting
emphasis on many research projects. In 1992, the most severe layoffs occurred when
close to 20% of our members were lost. Membership in our Local dropped from a record
high in the mid-eighties from about 320 members to less than 200 by 1995. The Local
Council went from 12 members in the early eighties to only 3.
From 1991 to 1996, there were three Chairpersons elected. Peter Mohammed, Bernard
Trevor and then Blair Davies, all of them subsequently were lost to layoffs. Our next
Chairperson was Normand Lanctot, elected in 1996.
Other than the implementation of collective bargaining in the sixties, the next biggest
change for the Local happened in 1997 when employees of the Alberta Environment
Centre in Vegreville merged with the ARC. Prior to this time we were considered a
Local without chapters. Now members were grouped into two chapters under Local 60,
thus the administration of the Local was to change shifting more emphasis on the Local
Council to run the affairs of the Union for its members.
With the welcome merger of members from Locals 12 and 1 to Local 60 at Vegreville,
the next step came in 1999 when the Alberta Research Council changed status within the
government and was now called ARC Inc. With that change, employees now came under
the Labour Relations Code. An agreement was made with the ARC Inc. that they would
still recognize the Union as our bargaining agent. A membership signing campaign
followed to ensure that employees would still want the Union to represent them because
of this fundamental change to the ARC.
This campaign was to be beneficial to the employees as the ARC later determined that
they would not voluntarily recognize AUPE anymore as our bargaining agent. A
certification drive resulted and after a government supervised vote, close to 95% of the
membership voted in favor of retaining AUPE.
In 2001, Irene Gaudet became the next Chairperson of the Local followed by Jim Wilson
in 2004 as our fourteenth Chair of Local 60. Several changes have occurred in the
collective agreement during this period that included an enhanced severance pay and
position abolishment article, implementation of a new increment system, introduction of
personal (casual) leave, health and wellness accounts, along with maintaining our
benefits to comprise one of the best collective agreements in AUPE.
In 2006, our Local will once again be certified under the Public Service Employees
Relations Act (PSERA) as a result of governance changes to the ARC.
Rosemary Harris, long-time member in AUPE with our Local and Local 12, became only
the second member from our Local to be honored as a Life Member in AUPE at the 2004
convention.
On January 1, 2010 the Alberta Research Council, under Bill 27, officially became a part
of Alberta Innovates - Technology Futures.
The legal name of the corporation changed on that date and after long, arduous legal
proceedings with our Employer, a new bargaining certificate was issued by the Alberta
Labour Relations Board on May 6, 2011.
Our new Bargaining Certificate issued by the ALRB under PSERA is E-76-2011.
In October, 2013 Don Ungarian was awarded Life Membership in AUPE becoming the
third Life Member from Local 60. Don worked for the Alberta Research Council
(Alberta Innovates Technology Futures) from 1975 until his retirement in 2013. He
worked in many departments in facilities at the U of A Campus Building, Nisku, Devon,
and Mill Woods.
Don was active his entire career in the Local and is considered by the Local as one of the
most important and valuable members we have ever had; he was always mentoring new
members while at the same time looking after the affairs of the Local. Don was active in
the Union outside the Local sitting on the Provincial Executive and several Standing
Committees.
With this change there is likely to be many issues arising that the Union and the Local
will be dealing with in our ongoing efforts to represent the best interests of our
membership.
However, in times like these, members must also act on these changes and have a say on
how they want to see their working conditions, benefits and pay determined, not
arbitrarily set by management or government bureaucrats.