FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: April 02, 1998

EDMONTON -- The tentative contract agreement reached early this morning between striking hospital workers in Edmonton and the Capital Health Authority is good news -- but it doesn't change the fact that Alberta's health care system is still seriously under-funded, says Audrey Cormack, president of the Alberta Federation of Labour.

"I'm extremely pleased with the agreement and I'm proud of the courageous actions taken by hospital workers over the past few days," said Cormack. "But it would be wrong to say that all the problems have been solved. Alberta's health care system is still being stretched to the breaking point."

Three days ago, about 1,200 licensed practical nurses (LPNs), nursing assistants (NAs) and other hospital employees walked off the job at Edmonton-area hospitals. It was the second major hospital strike in Edmonton in two weeks.

Workers involved in the latest strike returned to work this morning only after the CHA agreed to increase their wages by nine per cent over the next three years and introduce a system of differential wage premiums for shift and weekend work.

"With this agreement, and the agreement that support staff signed two weeks ago, hospital workers in Edmonton are finally starting to be treated with the respect they deserve," said Cormack. "But they are returning to work in hospitals that are still plagued with bed shortages and staff shortages. The provincial government still hasn't done enough to reverse the deterioration of our health care system."

Cormack points out that funding for health care in Alberta has plummeted since the Klein government was elected. According to statistics compiled by the Canadian Institute for Health Information -- a joint project of Statistics Canada and the federal Health Department -- per capita spending on health care in Alberta dropped by 17.5 per cent between 1993 and 1997 -- from $1,924 to $1,588 (in 1997 constant dollars).

"In five years, we went from having the highest level of per capita funding in the country to having the lowest," says Cormack. "Even with the small funding increases announced in the last provincial budget Alberta will remain at or near the bottom of the pile in terms of health funding. There's absolutely no excuse for that in a province as wealthy as ours."

Cormack says the time has clearly come for Ralph Klein and his ministers to spend more of the province's huge budget surplus on health care.

"If they don't increase funding for hospital care and other health care service, the quality of our health care system will continue to deteriorate -- and they run the risk of provoking even more labour disputes. You can only under-fund the system for so long before services start to fall apart and workers start to walk away in frustration."