In just a few months, I’ll be commemorating 5 years of being an independent journalist. It’s hard to believe how much time has gone by already.
I have seen some ups and downs during this time, in terms of paid support, and social media referral traffic, and Google traffic, and overall page views.
But one thing I do know is that I wrote nearly 300 news stories last year, and I wanted to highlight the most popular ones.
And by “most popular”, I mean the ones that saw the most eyeballs.
10. AHS plans to axe 1 in 10 contract health workers
A memo circulated last January to Alberta Health Services from senior leaders by Michael Lam, the agency’s chief financial officer and acting vice-president of corporate services. In it, Lam told these managers that he expects that agency staffing levels in all areas have to be reduced by at least 10%.
Provincial health agencies use agency staffing (otherwise known as travel nurses) as a way to boot staffing levels. Travel nurses get paid way more than domestic nurses, which increases operational spending.
6,000 views
Related: AHS projects to spend $330 million on agency nurses since 2022 (Progress Report)
9. AHS to increase use of unfunded hospital beds
The Alberta Worker was the first to report on this story after a nurse in Alberta leaked some internal documents to us, which showed that AHS planned to increase its use of hallway beds for hospital patients in the Calgary area.
7,000 views
8. WestJet strike leads to 26.25% raise
This was the most comprehensive coverage of the tentative agreement presented to aircraft maintenance workers last summer.
7,200 views
7. Canadian postal workers vote 95% to strike
This was my coverage of the recent strike of Canadian postal workers; although it was published before the lockout/strike. It outlines some of the things the workers and employer were putting on the bargaining table, something most media outlets completely ignored.
7,800 views
6. AB govt workers ask for 26% wage increase
Tens of thousands of Government of Alberta workers saw their collective agreements expire this year. This article from last February outlines what the government was asking for in wage increases and what the union was asking for. It also included contextual information from previous contracts.
8,000 views
5. AHS wants wage freezes for 1 in 5 HSAA workers
Speaking of public sector workers, this article reported on contract negotations between AHS and the Health Sciences Association of Alberta, which represents about 29,000 paramedical technical, professional, and general support workers in the public and private healthcare sectors of Alberta.
9,300 views
4. Thousands of Alberta workers lose 0.5% raise
This was an exclusive, as is the case for most of my contract reporting. Thousands of public sector workers had a gain-sharing formula included in their last contracts. If the average GDP of the province between 2003 and 2023 reached a certain level, they’d all get an additional 0.5% wage increase. It was a way to make the otherwise low wage increases more attractive. Alberta didn’t hit that marker, so everyone missed out.
11,600 views
3. AB nurses unhappy with mediator recommendation
Another exclusive. I reported not only a recent reporting meeting of the UNA, in which the over 500 voting delegates had an intense discussion on a controversial mediator recommendation but also on the reaction of nurses throughout the province who weren’t happy with the recommendation.
13,000 views
Related: Nurses reject mediator’s recommendation
2. Alberta nurses react to 7.5% raise proposal
Another story on Alberta nurses. This was earlier in the year, and covered the UNA’s response to 7.5% wage increase originally proposed by AHS in last year’s contract negotiations.
19,000 views
1. Alberta had largest real wages cut in Canada
And my most popular news story from 2024 was from last March, when I reported on wage data from Statistics Canada, busting the myth that Alberta had the best wages in the country. At the time, they were trailing both British Columbia and Ontario, and when you factor in inflation, Alberta wages performed the worst since 2014.
25,000 views
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