Alberta Politics: UCP plan to lay off 11,000 public sector health workers sparks wildcat walkouts at 45 Alberta health facilities

Infuriated at the Kenney Government’s determination to lay off 11,000 public sector health care workers and privatize their jobs, members of the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees walked off the job in a province-wide wildcat strike yesterday morning. Last night, the Alberta Labour Relations Board ruled the work stoppage to

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Alberta Politics: Alberta Union of Provincial Employees goes to court to challenge UCP law that criminalizes public protest

It was inevitable that sooner or later someone would challenge the United Conservative Party Government’s so-called Critical Infrastructure Defence Act, which appears on its face to include patently unconstitutional attacks on fundamental rights protected by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. In the event, the challenge was sooner and

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Alberta Politics: Alberta government makes moves to lay off more public employees — this time provincial public service members

No one should assume Saturday’s mass layoff of 26,000 substitute teachers, teaching assistants and non-essential support staff at schools throughout Alberta is the last such action planned by the United Conservative Party Government as it attempts to game federal pandemic supports. In a bargaining update published this morning by the

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Alberta Politics: Arbitrator’s decision awarding 1% pay increase to some AUPE members undermines UCP austerity arguments

An independent labour arbitrator yesterday awarded unionized Alberta government employees and health care support workers a modest 1-per-cent pay increase for 2019. Having gone into wage-reopener negotiations in the final year of their current collective agreements seeking much higher pay increases ranging from 6.5 to 7.85 per cent, the Alberta

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Alberta Politics: Plan to roll back public employees’ pay is no surprise, but the way it’s being rolled out seems surprisingly inept

When Alberta’s finance minister announced the Kenney Government’s plan to roll back unionized public employees’ pay by 2 to 5 per cent yesterday, he blamed Alberta’s debt and deficit, not the huge hole he’d just blown in the province’s budget with $4.5-billion in tax cuts for billionaires and big corporations.

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Alberta Politics: Court’s decision to turn off Alberta’s turn-off-the-taps law should surprise no one

Alberta’s so-called turn-off-the-taps law was pretty obviously unconstitutional when Rachel Notley’s New Democratic Party passed it and it continued to be unconstitutional when Jason Kenney’s United Conservative Party had it proclaimed into law. So yesterday’s ruling of the Federal Court of Canada granting British Columbia a temporary injunction blocking application

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Alberta Politics: UCP Government, with no apparent short-term Plan B, seeks leave to appeal injunction suspending Bill 9

Unsurprisingly, the United Conservative Party Government has filed notice of appeal on the temporary injunction granted by the Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench that halted application of Bill 9, playing havoc with Premier Jason Kenney’s strategy for putting off a crisis with the province’s public sector unions until after the

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Alberta Politics: Finance Minister Joe Ceci’s call for no wage hikes for public-sector unions a risky strategy for New Democrats

PHOTOS: Alberta Finance Minister Joe Ceci at yesterday’s news conference in Edmonton (Photo: Government of Alberta). Below: Alberta Premier Rachel Notley, her former chief of Staff, Brian Topp, and former NDP premiers Dave Barrett (Photo: The Tyee), Roy Romanow, and Bob Rae (Photo: Wikimedia Commons). Alberta’s NDP Government can’t say

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Alberta Diary: Four-year, 6.75% AUPE tentative agreement ends threat of open war between civil service union and Hancock Government

If not cordiale, at least entente. Alberta Premier Dave Hancock and AUPE President Guy Smith celebrate their tentative contract agreement yesterday. Actual Alberta public figures may not appear exactly as illustrated. (I freely admit stealing this idea from Daveberta.ca.) Below: Jim Prentice, Mr. Hancock and Mr. Smith. The threat of

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daveberta.ca - Alberta politics: Detente or Entente Cordiale? AUPE and Hancock Government reach tentative agreement

TweetAt 10:00 a.m. on April 28, 2014, Hugh McPhail, a lawyer representing the Alberta Government requested the Court of Appeal to adjourn a scheduled hearing on Bill 46, the controversial anti-labour law that had been halted by a court injection months ago. The law would have forced a regressive contract on the 22,000 government employees

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Alberta Diary: Valentine’s Day injunction all but massacres Redford Government’s credibility in fight with Alberta Union of Provincial Employees

Alberta Union of Provincial Employees President Guy Smith at the union’s news conference in Edmonton yesterday. Below: Alberta Labour Minister Thomas Lukaszuk. Mr. Justice Denny Thomas of the Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench did not merely accept the arguments of the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees when he slapped an

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Alberta Diary: Oh to be a fly on the cabinet room wall today! Court grants stay on application against AUPE of Bill 46 until Valentine’s Day

Steam vents from the cabinet room at the Alberta Legislature. Actual eruptions of Tory fury may not be exactly as illustrated – and, actually, that’s the Lieutenant Governor’s office. Well, whatever, it’s better than a file shot of the law courts sign! Below: AUPE President Guy Smith. Who wouldn’t want

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Alberta Diary: Alberta government ponders ‘options’ as independent arbitrator overturns firing of jail guards who took part in illegal strike

AUPE Correctional Officers rally at the picket line outside the Edmonton Remand Centre during their illegal strike in June 2013. Below: Arbitrator Andy Sims; former deputy premier Thomas Lukaszuk, as imagined by Sun Media; AUPE President Guy Smith. An independent arbitrator has overturned the firing of four Correctional Officers who

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