President's statement on cabinet wage rollbacks

AUPE President Guy Smith made the following statement today to assure AUPE members of the union’s position in relation to Premier Prentice’s many statements to the media regarding public-sector wages.

“Let me be clear. The government’s front-line employees have no appetite to reopen their hard-won contract. And those AUPE members who are currently in negotiations expect the government to respect their legal right to a fair bargaining process.”

Historic decision made by Supreme Court of Canada

AUPE to scrutinize Alberta labour laws in wake of Supreme Court ruling

Posted January 30, 2015 in Government Services

Alberta’s largest union welcomes the Supreme Court of Canada’s decision to strike down a Saskatchewan law severely restricting workers’ right to strike.

“This ruling calls into question all kinds of existing legislation here in Alberta,” said Edmonton lawyer Patrick Nugent, who serves as outside counsel for the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees. “We’ll be reviewing it very carefully in the coming weeks to see how it applies here.”

The ruling strikes down Saskatchewan’s essential services legislation, which severely limited public sector employees’ right to strike. AUPE intervened in support of the position ultimately adopted by the Court and made oral submissions at the hearing.

The Supreme Court ruling says, “The right to strike is not merely derivative of collective bargaining, it is an indispensable component of that right. It seems to me to be the time to give this conclusion constitutional benediction.” (para. 3)

It also states: “The fact that a service is provided exclusively through the public sector does not inevitably lead to the conclusion that it is properly considered ‘essential’. In some circumstances, the public may well be deprived of a service as a result of strike action without being deprived of any essential service at all that would justifiably limit the ability to strike during negotiations.” (para. 85)

The court determined that the legislation violated the Charter right to freedom of association.

The majority of public sector workers in Alberta, including direct government employees, health care workers and post-secondary employees, currently do not have the right to strike.

“The right to strike is constitutionally protected in Canada,” said Nugent. “Some governments try to get around this by imposing sweeping legislation declaring ‘essential services.’ This ruling sets a higher threshold for what can be declared essential and establishes that even when a prohibition on striking is justifiable, there must be a fair, meaningful mechanism for resolving disputes.”

He added: “a truly fair and equitable process would be unlikely to include legislated terms and conditions such as wage freezes or rollbacks.”

Public unions won’t capitulate as Prentice eyes ‘unsustainable’ wages

Alberta Union of Provincial Employees’ President Guy Smith announced the Union and the Government of Alberta have reached a tentative agreement...more
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BY MARIAM IBRAHIM, EDMONTON JOURNAL JANUARY 14, 2015
EDMONTON - Alberta unions say they won’t capitulate after Premier Jim Prentice said this week high public sector salaries are unsustainable in Alberta’s growing budget crisis.

Prentice said Wednesday he hopes to begin “respectful” discussions in the coming weeks with unions representing Alberta’s nurses, teachers and other public employees as his government works to construct a budget with sub-$50 oil.

At the same time the province is delivering costly public services it has the lowest taxes across the country, Prentice told reporters Wednesday during a teleconference from Toronto where he met with U.S. Ambassador to Canada Bruce Heyman and TD Bank analysts.

“Those two realities have coexisted because we’ve been able to draw about $10 billion of oil royalties each year to finance these public services. Those oil royalties have, at this point, essentially evaporated and it brings into question the harsh fiscal realities that this is unsustainable,” the premier said.

But Alberta Union of Provincial Employees president Guy Smith said that while public workers are paid more in Alberta, the same is true for those in the private sector.

“Alberta is a very hot economy that has increased costs and salaries across the board. It’s not just in the public sector,” he said.

According to figures used the provincial government, public sector wages are on average 12 per cent higher in Alberta than the rest of the country. But Smith noted those same statistics show that private sector salaries in Alberta are 26 per cent higher.

He said Prentice would be wrong to expect any concessions from public employees who were dragged into a battle with the government during the last round of contract negotiations.

“Not after what we went through. There’s absolutely no way,” Smith said.

The province ultimately settled with roughly 22,000 AUPE members last spring after months of tense negotiations and legal wrangling, agreeing to a four-year deal that promised a lump-sum payment in year one and a 6.75-per-cent wage increase over the next three. The government said at the time the agreement marked the first step toward rebuilding its broken relationship with the union and public employees.

Smith says the government should keep in mind the missteps of Alison Redford’s government as it moves forward.

“I do think the relationship has improved, but at the same time, the government needs to recognize the fact that we’re not going to be used as scapegoats again,” Smith said. “there are other parts of the economy they can look at.”

Alberta Teachers’ Association president Mark Ramsankar said it was odd for Prentice to single out teachers in his comments since the Redford government legislated a four-year settlement in 2013, also after tense negotiations. The settlement imposed a three-year wage freeze followed by a two-per-cent salary increase set to take effect this September.

“To renege in the fourth year of a four-year legislated settlement would be unconscionable,” Ramsankar said.

He said the province committed at the time to improving the working conditions inside schools, but that hasn’t happened.

United Nurses of Alberta president Heather Smith said she is willing to sit down with the province to help find a way out of the crunch, but said those discussions should focus on increasing revenue by looking at options such as a progressive income tax model.

She said she isn’t worried the Prentice government will attempt to roll wages back. Nurses are currently in the middle of a four-year agreement that included a wage freeze the first year, followed by a 7.25 per cent in the following three, Smith said.

But she said she is concerned the province will make broader cuts that would ultimately impact the workplace, such as not replacing workers who call in sick. Such cuts can create an unsafe environment because of inadequate staffing levels, she said.

“That’s where my fear would be,” she said.

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