September 10, 2012 - No. 111

Organize to Hold the Alberta Government to Account

Stop Paying the Rich --
Increase Investments in Social Programs!

Calgary, Labour Day 2012

Organize to Hold the Alberta Government to Account
• Discussion on Budget Consultations - Peggy Morton
• Redford Government Must Stop Paying the Energy Monopolies - Dougal MacDonald

Provide Public Right with a Guarantee
• Stop Threats to Seniors' Care Workers - Rita Soto
• Capital-Centred Thinking Blocks the Development of Modern and Humane Seniors' Care - Peggy Askin
• Revera Riverbend Workers Ordered Back to Work

Labour Day 2012
• Events Highlight Necessity to Fight for the Rights of All

Organize to Hold the Alberta Government to Account

Discussion on Budget Consultations

- Peggy Morton -

Claiming that "oil prices made me do it" Alberta Finance Minister Doug Horner has raised yet another pretext to attack social programs and the workers who deliver them and to use the funds it extorts to pay the rich. In a press release on August 30, Horner stated that "Government is taking action to control in-year spending because of ongoing market volatility and lower than expected revenues." Several days later Premier Alison Redford dismissed the announcement, saying she will make good on her campaign promises. The incoherence of the government's pronouncements shows the extent of the vicious fighting amongst the private interests vying for control of the state and the dangerous situation it creates.

For the workers and their allies, the issue is how to protect their interests.

The government has already announced that budget consultations will begin this fall. The consultations will be based on the aim laid out in the Throne Speech to make Alberta the "most economically free" jurisdiction in North America" where business will have the greatest "room to operate without interference and adapt to market conditions."

In announcing the budget consultations the government takes its cue from an old song -- "Catch a falling star an' put it in your pocket...Save it for a rainy day!" Energy revenues claimed by government are presented as though they were under no one's control, just like that falling star. Certainly no explanation is provided as to how revenues from energy are falling under conditions of boom and while the global cartels are raking in record profits and wallowing in the massive wealth they extort. Instead people are told that funds should go into a "rainy day" fund so that government can avoid deficit spending during periods of lower revenues from oil and gas royalties and land sales. The funds then become part of an investment fund that in turn is handed over to the rich.

Funds put in a rainy day fund cannot be used for social programs and capital spending such as new schools and hospitals. This is a prelude to stepped up attacks on social programs and claims they are unsustainable. P3s or public private partnerships are presented by the financial oligarchy as the "solution" whereby schools, hospitals and other public institutions will no longer be publicly-owned but built, owned, controlled and maintained by private interests for whom these contracts are a guaranteed, risk-free way to enrich themselves. This is how the Anthony Henday ring-road in Edmonton has been built and how new schools are being built, maintained and operated under the control of private interests. In other words, added-value claimed by government is handed over to the global monopolies and used to grow their capital and enrich private interests. Then private interests make more money by financing and operating public infrastructure, which the government says is necessary because they don't have the capital.

This makes no sense to anyone but the private interests who benefit. It shows the desperation of a government which is completely in the pocket of the oil cartels and international finance capital and has to keep insisting that there is no other way, no matter how irrational and nonsensical. It is nation-wrecking pure and simple.

Workers and their allies don't accept that there is no other way. They reject exploitation of the oilsands for export of raw bitumen which only exacerbates the boom and bust economy and call for planned development to serve nation-building and the public good. The oil cartels say they will not upgrade and refine in Canada under present conditions because it is more profitable to export raw bitumen and do the refining elsewhere. But this is precisely the point -- people do not agree that such decisions should be made on the basis of what serves private interests, but on what serves the public good.

Putting the government's claim to resource revenue into a "rainy day fund" is just another way of paying the rich and handing over control to the global monopolies who use these funds for their own enrichment. Social programs must be expanded to provide the rights of all with a guarantee, not attacked and curtailed. It is the pay-the-rich schemes which should be eliminated and the funding used to expand public enterprise. Now is the time to go further to ensure public control and say-so over resource development.

Redford Government Must
Stop Paying the Energy Monopolies

- Dougal MacDonald -

The Alberta energy monopolies, their champion the Tory government and their media continue to spread disinformation that Alberta is in a recession due to the condition of the global economy, in particular "low" oil prices, and that as a consequence everyone in Alberta must accept fiscal austerity. On September 1, Finance Minister Doug Horner stated in his party's first quarter fiscal update that "unless commodity prices (note: oil prices) improve, it could mean a provincial deficit of $2.3-$3 billion," even though during the election the Tories promised that Alberta would reach a surplus position by 2013-14. Horner added that Alberta's Ministers must review capital spending, examining each program's intent and cost and that government departments must cut at least $500-million combined. He went on to say that, "We are not going to cut for the sake of cutting. We are tightening our belts. We will cap overall operating spending to budget allocations and we have asked departments to operate lower than budget."

Horner's remarks about belt-tightening obviously once again threaten the province's level of investment in already underfunded social programs such as health care and education. However this whole concoction of fiscal austerity is deliberate disinformation in the interests of the monopolies, especially the energy monopolies. In Alberta, Imperial Oil, Suncor and other energy monopolies are the real rulers of the province and they run rampant and accumulate huge profits by unfettered exploitation of Alberta's labour and resources. The Redford government gives these monopolies every assistance to more effectively plunder Alberta's energy resources, including actually paying them billions of dollars to carry out their plunder. That is why oilsands monopolies Suncor and Imperial oil[1] (an Exxon subsidiary[2]), the largest investor in Alberta oilsands giant Syncrude, were Canada's fifth and sixth most profitable businesses in 2011, with Canadian Natural Resources (CNRL), Husky Energy and Cenovus not far behind.[3] The facts show that it is completely fraudulent to claim that the energy monopolies are in a recession and then use this claim to argue that this is the reason why provincial energy revenues have decreased!

The Redford government pays Syncrude, Suncor and the other energy monopolies in many different ways. One main way is through programs that greatly reduce the amount of revenue that the monopolies are required to turn over to the provincial government and which should be invested in social programs, e.g., reductions of revenue through royalty relief, tax credits, standard corporate income tax deductions, special tax deductions, and accelerated capital cost allowances. Another main way is for the provincial government to put money directly into the pockets of the monopolies through subsidies, exploration and development "expenses," and other ongoing pay-the-rich schemes, rather than investing that money in social programs. The actual amounts that are systematically handed over to the monopolies and which the people should demand to be made public are kept secret by the ruling circles but there is no doubt that they total in the billions of dollars. The extent of these payments to the rich shows that the Redford government cries crocodile tears when it moans about how it could only collect $1.9 billion in energy revenues due to the so-called recession.

As if the above boondoggles were not enough, the government also continues to create additional "special programs" which are further pay-the-rich schemes to hand over additional billions of dollars to the energy monopolies. The following are three recent examples which alone total about $8 billion in provincial giveaways: Alberta Carbon Capture and Storage Fund, announced in April 2008, will pay out $2 billion to various energy monopolies to store their carbon dioxide emissions underground; the Alberta Drilling Incentive Program, initiated in 2009 to "stimulate the economy during the recession," has already paid out an estimated $2.9 billion to the energy monopolies, according to the Alberta Federation of Labour; at the end of March 2012 the Redford regime agreed to pay $3 billion into an energy research authority called Alberta Oilsands Technology and Research Authority 2 (AOSTRA 2) that will improve oilsands technology on behalf of the energy monopolies.[4] The continuing addition of new special programs show that no matter how much the monopolies are paid, they will always come back for more, as well as that the Redford government and its predecessors are always willing to concoct new ways to pay the rich.

What is most scandalous is that all the added-value that the Redford government hands over to the energy monopolies is created by the workers. It is the workers who produce billions of dollars of value in the energy and other sectors each year. Without the workers mining and transforming the energy resources to produce crude oil, gasoline and other products, the energy sector disappears and produces nothing. This means that it is the workers who have first right of claim on the value they produce yet their claim is being put at the end of the line. Owners have the last claim on the value the workers produce yet they shamelessly give themselves the right to first claim and take the lion's share. The Alberta government has second claim so that it can fulfil its duty to provide the people and society with social programs and other necessities. But instead of doing its duty, the Alberta government hands over more and more of its claim to the monopolies through the numerous pay-the-rich schemes. What Horner's announcement about belt-tightening really means is that the monopolies now must be paid even more. That is why the Redford government, their champion, is promoting fiscal austerity for the people.

The domination of Alberta by the most powerful energy monopolies deprives the actual producers of any say or control over the reproduction of their economy and their claim on what they produce. Rather than upholding public right by increasing investments in social programs, the Alberta government upholds monopoly right through more and more pay-the-rich schemes, flatly refusing to do its duty to provide the people of Alberta with what they require. The law of the jungle rules where everyone must fend for themselves. This untenable situation raises the issue of what kinds of controls and restrictions are necessary within the Alberta economy. With the government enabling the energy monopolies to claim the lion's share of the added-value produced by the workers, move it around for their private interests or even remove it from the province and country, it is clear that what is really required is public control of the energy industry. The refusal of the Alberta government to deprive the energy monopolies of their power to deprive the people of their rights and a say and control over reproduction of their economy has created an alarming situation for the people that the working class must take the lead in challenging and changing with conscious, organized resistance. The actual producers of wealth within the socialized economy must unite to defend their rights and the reproduction of the economy. The first step towards a planned modern society is the economic and political program to stop paying the rich and increase funding for social programs.

Notes

1. Imperial Oil also exploits conventional oil and gas and runs about 1,850 Esso gasoline stations across Canada.
2. In 2011, Exxon's revenues ranked first of all U.S. monopolies listed in the May 21, 2012, Fortune 500 rankings at $843 billion, an increase of 27.7 per cent from 2010. Exxon's profits also ranked first at $41,060 billion, an increase of 34.8 per cent from 2010.
3. The Globe and Mail Report on Business, July 2012.
4. AOSTRA 1 used public money to develop the steam-assisted gravity drainage (SAGD) process for mining oilsands and then turned it over to the monopolies.

Provide Public Right with a Guarantee

Stop Threats to Seniors' Care Workers

- Rita Soto -

Calgary Monterey Place Assisted Living workers locked out since June 26. (AUPE)

Throughout 2012, workers providing both health care and support services to residents, mainly seniors, in private for-profit care centres across Alberta have waged a determined fight to uphold their rights. They are fighting for wages and benefits commensurate with the services they provide and working conditions which allow them to provide good care and services to the residents. In most cases, the workers are fighting for first contracts. Workers at the Hardisty Care Centre in Edmonton won a first contract, while the workers at Revera Riverbend in Edmonton were ordered back to work and will go to compulsory arbitration if a negotiated settlement cannot be reached. The Monterey Care Centre workers in Calgary are in the third month of their lockout.

Seniors' care workers have been forced to strike or have been locked out for months seeking first contracts and modest demands including wage parity with public-sector long-term care workers. The responsibility for this situation lies not only with the corporations and multi-millionaires who own these facilities but with the Alberta government which refuses to uphold its responsibility to seniors and their caregivers. These owners can lock out the workers and continue to benefit from the Alberta government's pay-the-rich schemes. The government pays the rich by providing capital funding such as the $6.6 million to build the private Grande Prairie Care Centre completed in 2010. It provides operating funding for these private for-profit companies on the same basis as that provided for non-profit facilities. But the government does not require that these profiteers provide the same level of staff or that funding for wages actually goes to the workers. This allows the private operators to pocket millions by paying their staff lower wages and forcing larger workloads on fewer workers. For example Alberta Health Services provides funding for a Licenced Practical Nurse (LPN) at $58,218 per year. But at Monterey Place in Calgary an LPN is paid $45,215 a year and the owners pocket $13,002. As well, there are fewer staff.

Across Alberta health care workers are fighting for their rights and the rights of seniors to quality care. The private for-profit operators have refused to meet the just demands of the workers through good faith negotiations. They chose instead to put residents in the hands of a constant turnover of strikebreakers from temp agencies who are not familiar with their needs. This was the situation when Revera Riverbend seniors' care workers in Edmonton were ordered back to work on August 14 by the Alberta government after two months on the picket line. The government cited instances of deteriorating care and referred the dispute to a public emergency tribunal and the union is now headed to compulsory arbitration.

Shortly after workers at Revera Riverbend were ordered back to work, NDP MLA David Eggen visited the workers and called on the government to deal with the deteriorating care at Monterey. Eggen, former Director of Friends of Medicare, pointed out that the strikes and lockouts speak to the government's encouragement of private companies providing what should be a public service. He said: "The solution to this lock-out is obvious, and Calgary's seniors deserve prompt action from this government."

Human Services Minister Dave Hancock's response was not to demand that the corporate owner of Monterey Place provide a satisfactory level of care, which could be done by conducting good faith negotiations to meet the modest demands of the workers. As usual, the wealthy owners have been permitted to act with impunity. If the owners faced consequences for inadequate care and negligence, this dispute would have been over a long time ago.

But instead of taking measures so that the rich cannot act with impunity, the Minister launched an attack on the rights of workers, saying that the government may consider adding workers in private continuing care facilities to legislation which makes them essential services and makes strikes and lockouts illegal. All workers in public health care and long-term care facilities are already under legislation which criminalizes their right to resist.

This cynical stand reflects the refusal of governments to uphold their social responsibility and provide the rights of seniors with a guarantee. First the government forces seniors and those who care for them into the private-for-profit marketplace. Then when the workers fight for their rights and quality health care it proposes to criminalize the workers' resistance.

Through their courageous stand, the workers continue to shine a spotlight on these private nursing homes and supportive living facilities and how these private-for-profit companies are operating. They have shown that the rights of the workers and the seniors they care for are interdependent and it is not possible to speak of one without the other. But the government is so blinded by its slavish service to the rich that it can only lash out at the workers.

If this government recognized the rights of seniors and those who provide their care as essential they would stop expanding private health and seniors' care as a means to enrich private interests.

Demand that the Alberta government uphold public right, not the "rights" of private interests!

Capital-Centred Thinking Blocks the Development of Modern and Humane Seniors' Care

- Peggy Askin -

Workers from Hardisty Care Centre on the picket line with workers at Revera Riverbend in Edmonton, August 2012. (AUPE)

The refusal by Revera and other private companies involved in seniors' care to engage in good-faith bargaining shows that they operate strictly as a business and are quite prepared to compromise the care, health and very lives of the seniors under their care if that is what it takes to grow their capital. This is why profit has no place in seniors' care. It also shows the need for new arrangements in providing security and pensions for workers in retirement.

Revera Riverbend is owned by Revera Inc., a real estate investment trust in Canada that operates seniors housing properties, which in turn is owned by PSP Investments, the pension fund for federal public servants, armed forces personnel and the RCMP. PSP reports record profits for Revera, based on its "cost containment" measures.

Federal public service workers and their union have no control over their pension funds. Pension funds are managed based on the outlook of owners of capital that both pensions and all aspects of seniors' care are factors to expand capital. The board of PSP is appointed by the federal government, and in this regard responsibility rests firmly with the Harper government. Executive managers are paid exorbitant salaries and bonuses. In the final three years of his contract, current CEO Jeff Lozon's predecessor, CEO Derek Watchorn made more than $1.2 million a year. In the 2010-11 fiscal year, CEO of PSP Investments Gordon Fyfe was paid $2.6 million, including nearly $1.8 million in bonuses.

Owners of capital consider both pension funds and all aspects of seniors' care as factors to expand capital. The fact that this outlook is obsolete is clearly shown by the actions of Revera in locking out its workers. The entire purpose of fighting for pensions for all is to ensure security in retirement. Yet the pension funds are used to build a system of seniors' care designed to squeeze profit from every aspect of seniors' care. Public long-term care is being replaced by "assisted living" where even the inadequate level of care provided in long-term care facilities is reduced. Seniors, their families and governments hand over money to these private owners of capital for their basic needs, including medical supplies and pharmaceuticals.

The workers are considered a "cost" to be contained. This affects the well-being of both the workers and the seniors and is unconscionable. The rights of seniors and the workers who care for them are interdependent. The capital-centred outlook is blocking the development of humane and modern relationships between seniors and the staff who care for them.

On the picket line, the contrast between the old and the new was so evident. Seniors and their families would stop and give encouragement to the staff, hopeful that a settlement would soon be reached and the staff they know and depend on would be back at work providing the dedicated care in which they take such pride. The workers worried about the seniors, especially those with dementia, who they explained are so much in need of care from staff who know them and their needs. But Revera is organized to grow its capital, not to put the needs of the seniors and the workers who care for them in first place.

Old relations block this social love and mutual respect expressed between seniors and caregivers not just during the strike but on a daily basis. The workers are considered a cost to be "contained" in the drive for higher profits, and the denial of their rights also affects the care they can provide. Despite the end of the strike, workers who care for seniors continue to uphold their rights and the rights of seniors to live in dignity and receive the care which is theirs by right.

Revera Riverbend Workers Ordered Back to Work

Revera workers on the picket line, July 2012. 

On August 14, after 70 days on the picket line, workers at Revera Riverbend Retirement Living in Edmonton were ordered to return to work following the Alberta government's decision to establish a Public Emergency Tribunal (PET). A PET is one of the provisions in the Alberta Labour Code which the government can use to bring an end to a strike or lockout. The Minister of Labour can declare an emergency on the basis that a strike or lockout "may result in damage to health or property or unreasonable hardship placed on persons not involved in the dispute."

The Revera Riverbend workers are part of a section of the private for-profit seniors' care sector who are fighting for first collective agreements. Workers at Monterey Place in Calgary have been locked out for two and a half months. Workers at Hardisty Care Centre in Edmonton owned by Park Place won their first collective agreement after a two-month strike. Park Place then settled with the workers at Devonshire Place, which it also owns, without a strike. The workers are affirming their right to wages, benefits and working conditions acceptable to their peers and commensurate with the important services they provide.

The approximately 80 workers at Revera went on strike for a first contract and wage parity with public-sector long-term care workers. They include Licenced Practical Nurses (LPNs), Personal Care Aides (PCAs) and support staff including housekeepers and food services workers. They are represented by the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees (AUPE).

Rather than meet the extremely modest demands of the workers, Revera refused to engage in good faith bargaining. Instead Revera continued to operate the residence with a revolving door of scab replacement workers who did not know the residents and clearly were providing substandard care.

Alberta Health Minister Fred Horne stated that Alberta Health Services had conducted daily inspections since the strike began and that the most recent inspections found a number of deficiencies in the care of the 120 residents. Horne stated that the conditions at Revera had deteriorated and posed an unacceptable level of risk to patients. Revera Riverbend is home to seniors who live independently as well as seniors with dementia designated as "assisted living."

Under the terms of the PET, the union and Revera management had 21 days to reach a negotiated settlement. The 21 days have now passed and the dispute will now go to compulsory arbitration.

The issues going to arbitration centre on the demand for parity with industry standards. Wages at Riverbend are 11-14 per cent lower than the industry standard for LPNs and PCAs. Wages for support staff including workers in housekeeping and food services are 30 per cent below industry standard. The workers receive the minimum sick time allowed by law -- five days annually for full-time employees and three days for part-time employees. This is not only a great hardship for the workers, many of whom have young children, but also violates basic requirements to limit the spread of illness.

Health Minister Horne has presented the government's decision as taking the high road to safeguard the well-being of the residents. This is far from the case. The province is wide open to private, for-profit operators like Revera. It persists in closing public facilities under various pretexts to provide a bigger "market" for private interests to line their pockets and get rich on the backs of the seniors in need of care and the workers who care for them. The responsibility for the deteriorating conditions at Revera lies not only with the Revera executive managers who refused to engage in good faith bargaining, but with the Alberta government which refuses to uphold its responsibility to seniors and their caregivers.

About Revera Inc.

Formerly named Retirement Residences Real Estate Investment Trust, Revera is the largest provider of accommodation for seniors in Canada, with 250 retirement and long term care facilities, including 40 in the U.S. There are almost 30,000 seniors in Canada and the U.S. living in their facilities and there are 30,000 employees across Canada and the U.S. In addition, Revera operates an extensive network of home care agencies, providing home care services to 25,000 "clients" a week.

In 2007, PSPIB Destiny Inc., a subsidiary of the Public Sector Pension Investment Board (PSPIB) purchased Revera. PSPIB is one of Canada's largest pension investment managers, with $64.5 billion of assets in 2012. It invests funds for the pension plans of the public service, the Canadian Forces, the RCMP and the Reserve Force. PSP Investments was incorporated as a Crown Corporation under the Public Sector Pension Investment Board Act in 1999.

Revera's parent company PSP Investments states that its seniors' portfolio is its most profitable sector. Seniors' residences and long-term care make up an increasing portion of PSP's overall real estate portfolio, an investment decision made because this sector is considered highly profitable and sheltered from the collapse of the value of other forms of real estate, especially in the U.S. housing market. According to the annual report, real estate earned $644 million in investment income, excluding transaction costs, for a return of 13.8 per cent in fiscal year 2011 compared to a benchmark return of 6.9 per cent for the same period. The huge returns on investment were attributed to cost containment measures carried out by Revera.

Labour Day 2012

Events Highlight Necessity to
Fight for the Rights of All

Labour Day was celebrated in Alberta at a time when there are still more than 100,000 unemployed workers across the province. This does not include those who are underemployed or working in part-time or temporary positions but in need of full-time work. There is also a precarious situation facing the large number of workers and youth who are forced to come to Alberta from all parts of Canada looking for work, as is the case for so-called temporary foreign workers. All of this -- the ongoing fights by public sector workers, especially in the fields of seniors' care and health care, and more -- was on the minds of Alberta workers at the BBQs hosted by the labour councils in both Calgary and Edmonton.

In both cities a very lively atmosphere prevailed. As well as enjoying the food and music, workers and activists exchanged information about their work to defend rights and developments in their sectors. The Labour Day statement from the Workers' Centre of CPC(M-L) and Workers' Forum were enthusiastically received by many workers.

Edmonton

The Edmonton and District Labour Council held its 23rd annual Labour Day BBQ for the unemployed and under-employed at Giovanni Cabato Park. Activists from many unions took part to serve the thousands of people who came out for the event.

Calgary

Workers from many sectors and unions participated in the Calgary and District Labour Council Labour Day BBQ at Olympic Plaza in downtown Calgary. As well as serving food to over 2,000 unemployed and under-employed Calgarians and their families, unions and other organizations set up information tables to inform people about their activities and their work in defence of rights.

(Photos: AUPE, PSAC)