After years of advocacy, Alberta regulated Physician Assistants (PAs) in April 2021. Now that this important milestone has been reached, an emerging priority is ensuring Alberta based PAs have proper labour representation that will enable them to advocate for workplace improvements, including better compensation.

Advantages and Disadvantages to Representation:
The main advantage to pursuing labour representation is to improve working conditions and compensation for Alberta PAs. Being part of a Union could result in other benefits, for example: better job security, hours, occupational safety, training, etc. There is also a risk that other unions could choose to claim the representation rights of PAs without your agreement, which would be mitigated if we can find a path forward.

There are also several disadvantages that must be considered in pursuing labour representation. Representation will come with a cost for Alberta PAs. Representation includes bargaining but also managing through other workplace issues like grievances with employers etc. Most health care unions collect dues from members of between 1% and 2% of wages to manage the operations of an organization, not to mention start up costs. These dues are often mandatory.

Options:
There are three options Alberta PAs can pursue in considering labour representation.

Option 1: Creating our own union or association.
  • The benefit of this approach is the union will exclusively have the interests of PAs at heart. The downside of this strategy is that it will be cost and labor intensive to set up a new union, the process will take a long time, as we would need to establish new agreements with employers, and we wouldn’t have the numbers to support large scale asks.
Option 2: Joining an existing union.
  • The benefit of this approach is that it may be more cost effective, as there are fewer set up costs, this approach may be faster as existing unions already have infrastructure and relationships with employers, and we would be joining a larger group which may give us more negotiation power rather than as a standalone profession. The disadvantage of this is that the union would consider more priorities than just PA needs, and we may have to advocate internally for our issues to be brought up. There is also no guarantee that PAs would be accepted into an existing union. 
  • We would also have to find a union that is the right fit for our needs, that wants to take PAs on. Options may include:
    • Alberta Medial Association (AMA);
    • Health Sciences Association of Alberta (HSAA);
    • Alberta Health Services (AHS) through Alberta Union of Provincial Employees (AUPE);
    • United Nurses of Alberta (UNA); and
    • Christian Labour Association of Canada (CLAC).
Option 3: Status quo.
  • The benefit of CAPA and Alberta PAs making no movement on this, is we can wait for more PAs to enter the province which may make “Option 1: Create Our Own Union” more feasible. The government in power is also not overly friendly to unions, which may damage our relationship if we pursue this route. However, there is risk with this option as we could potentially be lumped into a union not of our choosing and be put in a reactive position.

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* 1. After reading the above preamble, which option do you prefer?

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* 2. If we were to join an existing union, please rank your preference.

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* 3. Please rank your most important considerations for Alberta representation: 

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* 4. How much money would you be willing to pay in union dues:

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* 5. Would you be interested in helping to set up a union?

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* 6. Would you be interested in taking on a leadership role in a future union?

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* 7. Any other feedback?

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