Alberta LPNs to rally for better representation

Licensed practical nurses plan to rally later today in four Alberta cities.

These nurses are trying to bring attention to what they see as an inappropriate classification of their job titles and, subsequently, which labour organization gets to represent them.

You see, unlike registered nurses and registered psychiatric nurses, LPNs aren’t represented by the United Nurses of Alberta.

In 1976, the Alberta Labour Relations Board identified 5 standard functional hospital bargaining units: direct nursing care, auxiliary nursing care, paramedical professional, paramedical technical, and general support services.

These categories changed slightly in 2003: direct nursing care, auxiliary nursing care, paramedical or technical, and general support services.

LPNs fall under “auxiliary nursing care”, as do registered nursing assistants, nursing assistants, nursing aides, and nursing orderlies.

Back in 1976, however, LPNs were known as registered nursing assistants and certified nursing aides.

As such, rather than being represented by the UNA, they’re represented by mostly the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees, and to a lesser extent Canadian Union of Provincial Employees and the United Steelworker, none of which specialize in nursing care.

In 1987, the registered nursing assistants and certified nursing aides became licensed practical nurses, and by the 1990s, they were still assisting RNs but had more responsibilities than health care aides did.

However, in the last couple of decades, their scope of practice has evolved significantly, to the point that about 90% of what they do now overlaps with what RNs do, according to one organizer of the rallies. A spokesperson for United Nurses of Alberta said in an email to The Alberta Worker that it’s closer to 75–80%. Regardless, according to the rally organizert, LPNs in Alberta have the largest scope of practice among LPNs in Canada.

According to Alberta Health Services, LPNs “are professional nurses who contribute to the assessment, planning, implementation and evaluation of patient care”. This includes the following duties:

• Assess, monitor, and document patient symptoms, reactions and progress
• Take and record vital signs
• Collect various samples
• Administer medications and injections
• Dress wounds
• Provide education to patients and families
• Assist physicians during procedures

A group calling themselves LPNs for Change argues that these duties qualify as direct nursing care, not auxiliary nursing care, bringing them closer to registered nurses and registered psychiatric nurses than nursing assistants and nursing aides. They’ve been advocating since 2022 to see this reflected in who represents them.

Their advocacy began when 5 LPNs—Ginny Wong, Quintin Martin, Amy Whitehead, Lenora Evans, and Akanksha Gupta—realized in 2022, when their previous collective agreement was expiring soon, that the term “auxiliary” was confusing and inaccurate. However, through their persistence and determination, these workers had been able to find support through just shy of 3,000 petitioners.

Last April, those 5 workers filed an application for reference of a difference to the ALRB, which if approved would’ve differentiated the work they do from others classified within the auxiliary nursing care bargaining unit.

AUPE (which represents just shy of 12,000 of Alberta’s 18,000 LPNs), along with CUPE and USW, opposed the application, calling it “improper, without merit, and bound to fail” and filed a summary dismissal application.

UNA, on the other hand, supported the efforts of these workers, going so far as to say that reclassifying LPNs is even “necessary for a well-functioning labour relations system in health care in Alberta for the Labour Relations Board to rationalize the standard bargaining units such that they accord with the functions nurses perform in their positions.” The also agreed that “LPNs predominately perform direct nursing care”.

The ALRB ultimately sided with AUPE, CUPE, and USW, however, when they published their decision in December. They concluded in their decision that the application for reference of a difference “has no reasonable prospect of success” and thus upheld the auxiliary nursing care unions request to summarily dismiss the application of the workers.

While the workers are able to appeal the decision, they’ve decided to direct their efforts to pressuring the government in making regulatory changes to how LPNs are classified in Alberta.

They’ve been encouraging LPNs around the province to write to their MLAs and government officials regarding this issue. They want the government to conduct a job function analysis on the work LPNs do in Alberta.

They also have planned a LPNs Are Nurses Rally for today. They peaceful demonstration is supposed to run between 9:00 this morning and noon and will take place in 5 cities simultaneously.

• Calgary: Municipal Plaza
• Edmonton: Violet King Henry Plaza
• Lethbridge: City Hall
• Medicine Hat: City Hall
• Red Deer: City Hall Park

In an email to The Alberta Worker, Ginny Wong, one of the group’s organizers, reiterated the need for a job function assessment:

The mission of our demonstrations and the daily emails sent by LPNs is to demand a job function analysis by the government. We demand an objective assessment of our job functions, and from the analysis result, move us to the appropriate bargaining unit. LPNs are nurses, and we are not to be exploited anymore!