Alberta Government Holds Rights of
Workers in Contempt
Resounding No! to Legislated Attacks on Public Sector Workers
AFL President Gil McGowan and AUPE President Guy Smith speak to media
from the legislature rotunda denouncing Bill 9.
The Kenney government introduced the Public Sector
Wage Arbitration Deferral Act as Bill 9 in the Alberta Legislature
on June 13. The legislation will "legalize" postponing scheduled and
ongoing collective bargaining and arbitration for 180,000 public sector
workers in Alberta, involving 24 collective agreements, until at least
October 31 and in some cases to March 15, 2020. The Bill prohibits
implementation of wage re-opener clauses in these agreements, which set
out a date when the matter goes to arbitration if a negotiated
settlement is not reached and a date by which the arbitration must be
held.
 According to the Kenney
government, the Act provides only for a "procedural delay" until the
government has received the report of its "blue ribbon" panel on the
state of Alberta's finances due August 15. The government further
claims that it does not violate public sector contracts. This is
clearly false, as the bill breaches the provisions of
the collective agreements of Alberta's nurses, teachers, health care
workers, provincial government employees, and others.
By making it "legal" to dictate changes to a collective
agreement, Bill 9 violates the right of all workers to a say and
control over wages, conditions of work and their living standards
generally, and at the very least the right to negotiate their terms of
employment in a climate of equilibrium and not arbitrariness and
dictate. It shows that far from upholding the rule of law, the
government is prepared to tear up collective agreements and to act in
utter contempt of the spirit and letter of the law. While public sector
workers are the specific target of this attack, an attack on the legal
rights of these workers is an attack against all workers.
According to Jason Kenney and the United Conservative
Party (UCP), they won the election and therefore have a mandate to do
whatever they please. On this basis the Kenney government is dredging
up all the despised and discredited buzzwords of the Ralph Klein and
Mike Harris era -- cutting red tape, making Alberta "open for
business,"
"cutting waste," "finding efficiencies in government" and so on. It
claims there is no alternative to cutting investments in social
programs and attacking the workers who deliver them.
In claiming to speak for Albertans, the government is
trying to present the opposition of public sector workers to this
assault as a violation of the will of the people who have supposedly
provided the ruling party with a mandate. But it is the entire working
class which is being attacked when the right to a say in wages, living
and working conditions is negated. Further, workers who deliver the
public services which the people need to live a modern humane existence
are the front line of defence of these services. Their resistance has
proven crucial time and again in the fight against wrecking of public
services including health care, education and seniors' care. The key
issue facing the people is how to end the anti-social offensive, and on
this there is no split between workers employed by the state or public
agencies and those who sell their ability to work to private interests.
 While successive governments
hand over billions to the energy oligarchs and other rich private
interests, the workers are told by successive governments that they
must "do their bit" to reduce the deficit or balance the budget or else
the government will use force against them. Public sector workers do
service to society when they refuse to be
put on the defensive as concerns their right to wages, benefits and
security in retirement, and to working conditions which allow them to
teach the youth, care for the sick, elderly and people with
disabilities, protect the natural environment, look after the
infrastructure and make society function every day.
The assault on the right to collectively negotiate
wages, working and living conditions shows the extent of the
destruction of politics and the profound crisis of the so-called
democratic institutions which block the polity from collectively
setting the direction for the economy and society. The wrecking of
politics replaces inquiry, discussion and
good-faith negotiations with wrecking, force and dictate and the use of
police powers, all in the service of the financial oligarchy who
exercise their domination over the economy and society.
The right of workers to negotiate collectively their
terms of employment is a right that belongs to workers because of their
essential role in production and contributions to society. This right
cannot be denied or negated through legislation, or justified by
appointing former politicians and others to Blue Ribbon Panels who
advocate for
neo-liberal assaults on workers. Depriving workers of their rights has
the aim of diverting even more of the social wealth working people
produce into the hand of the rich and forcing workers into
unsustainable working conditions, which are increasingly precarious.
 The Kenney government is
attempting to negate the right of working people to negotiate terms of
employment in a climate of equilibrium in which those who do the work
have a say, which includes the right to say no. The government's aim is
to "Charter-proof" its attack on the right to collectively
negotiate terms of employment
through a deceptive process to suppress the rights of public service
workers while cutting the social programs and public services the
people need for a modern humane existence. This is unacceptable in
today's world and should never happen.
The Kenney government's assault is an attack on all
working people. Workers' Forum calls on everyone to stand with
the Alberta public sector workers in defence of rights and to say No!
to dictate and illegality in the service of rich private interests.
This article was published in
Number 23 - June 20, 2019
Article Link:
Alberta Government Holds Rights of
Workers in Contempt: Resounding No! to Legislated Attacks on Public Sector Workers
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
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