ALF V1

'After tax' line attempts to paint province's ultra-low minimum wage

as ranking "second in Canada"

EDMONTON – Members of the government of Alberta should be ashamed of themselves for attempting to spin the province's proposed new minimum wage as the second highest in Canada when the reality is it will be the second lowest.

"The government is twisting the truth," says McGowan, president of the Alberta Federation of Labour. "The fact is that Alberta presently has the lowest minimum wage in Canada. After the province's minimum wages increase in September, we'll have the second lowest minimum wage in the country after Saskatchewan.

McGowan noted that minimum wages act as a benchmark for other minimum-wage earners. A low general minimum wage will keep other wages at the low end of the spectrum.

"Alberta's cost of living is amongst the highest in the country. By most accounts, we're heading into another boom period where the costs of essentials will increase. Working Albertans need a living wage, one that will allow them to earn enough to keep their heads above water."

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For more information call: Gil McGowan, President @ 780-218-9888 (cell)

Click here for Backgrounder

OTTAWA - Tom Mulcair is heading to Alberta for his first tour of the oilsands, confident he can dispel perceptions that he's anti-development and anti-western Canada.

But even before the NDP leader left Ottawa for Thursday's tour, his political rivals were stoking fears that he'd shut down the engine of Canada's economy and throw thousands out of work.

Mulcair has earned condemnation by western premiers with his view that the booming oilsands have artificially boosted the value of the dollar, hurting other sectors of the economy — a phenomenon known as Dutch disease.

He won support Wednesday for his thesis from a study produced by the Alberta-based Pembina Institute. It concluded that Canada is suffering from a unique strain of Dutch disease, dubbed "oilsands fever," the benefits of which are unevenly shared across the country and could lead to economic turmoil down the road.

But another report, by the Ottawa-based Macdonald-Laurier Institute, countered that the cross-country benefits of the West's energy resources far outweigh any ill-effects caused by the higher loonie.

Shortly before leaving for Alberta, Mulcair shrugged off suggestions he was about to enter the lion's den. He insisted there's "almost unanimous" support across Canada, including in Alberta, for his vision of environmentally sustainable development in which polluters pay the costs of cleaning up their messes.

"So, I think a lot of us are actually on the same page," he said.

Indeed, Mulcair suggested his views are in sync with those of Alberta Premier Alison Redford, who is advocating a national energy strategy.

"This whole discussion is about breaking the boom-and-bust cycle, having sustainable development, looking at the environmental, economic and social aspects of the equation, coming up with a pan-Canadian vision. There are people in the West who believe in that as well."

Mulcair acknowledged he's got some work to do to clear up some of the distortions that political rivals have been spreading about his position, such as that he's anti-western Canada.

"One of the things that we've been dealing with is the straw man that was set up by some of our adversaries, which was relatively easy to knock down," he said.

He reiterated that his polluter-pay principle does not single out the West but would apply to the development of all natural resources right across the country, from logging in British Columbia to shale gas exploration in New Brunswick to the fisheries in Newfoundland and Labrador.

Mulcair has said it would be "senseless" to stop development of the oilsands. But that didn't stop Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver from accusing him of wanting to do precisely that.

"If he approaches the visit (to the oilsands) with an open mind, he will be mugged by reality, the reality of the importance of the vast resource to jobs, growth and government revenues, the reality ... of how every region of the country benefits, including aboriginal communities," Oliver said.

"Unfortunately, Thomas Mulcair has been clear that he does not support the oilsands, that he does want to shut them down, killing hundreds of thousands of jobs. ... He can visit the oilsands but let's be clear that his real agenda is to impose a crushing new carbon tax, shut down the oilsands and kill hundreds of thousands of jobs."

As proof, Oliver pointed to a 2008 book by Andrew Nikiforuk, entitled Tar Sands: Dirty Oil and the Future of a Continent. Mulcair wrote a foreword to the book, which Oliver took as an endorsement of author's call for phasing out oilsands production by 2030 and imposing what Oliver dubbed a "crushing" new carbon tax.

During last fall and winter's leadership contest and since claiming the NDP leadership in March, Mulcair has repeatedly said he doesn't support shutting down the oilsands or a carbon tax. He does advocate putting a price on carbon through implementation of a cap-and-trade system, which the Harper government itself supported at one time.

But Oliver doubted Mulcair has genuinely changed his tune, suggesting he is just trying to accomplish Nikiforuk's goals by "stealth."

Oliver's views were echoed by interim Liberal Leader Bob Rae, who tried to position his party as taking a moderate "reasoned" position between the polar extremes offered by the Conservatives and NDP.

"I think we're seeing a kind of rhetorical drawing of lines in the oilsands, if you like, which I don't think is very constructive," Rae said.

He added that Liberals favour sustainable development of the oilsands and putting "a proper price" on carbon — much as Mulcair is advocating.

"I think the biggest mistake we can make is say that it's an either-or situation. The government says it's development or else and the NDP says shut it down or else because it's not sustainable. Our answer is let's have development that's sustainable," Rae said.

He also took Mulcair to task for having dismissed western premiers earlier this month as "messengers" for Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

"I think that's a lousy way to begin the discussion."

Some union leaders, however, defended Mulcair Wednesday, saying Albertans should be thanking him for igniting a long overdue debate about the pace of development in the oilsands.

"Every time anyone, whether it's here in Alberta or across the country, raises questions about the approach the Alberta government and oil companies are taking in developing the oilsands, they're shouted down. They're demonized. They're dismissed," said Gil McGowan, the head of the Alberta Federation of Labour.

"We've had the ghost of the national energy program thrown in our face."

Mulcair is not scheduled to meet with Redford during his Alberta trip. She is to be out of the province Thursday. However, he will meet with her deputy premier and the mayor of Fort McMurray.

Winnipeg Free Press, Wed May 30 2012
Byline: Joan Bryden

CALGARY - The head of the Alberta Federation of Labour is defending Tom Mulcair in advance of the federal NDP leader's tour of the oilsands.

Mulcair has angered western premiers and the federal government for suggesting Canada's resource sector has caused an inflated dollar and cost thousands of manufacturing jobs in Central Canada.

"Instead of vilifying Thomas Mulcair, I think Albertans should be thanking him for igniting a long overdue debate about the pace of development in the oilsands and its downside both for Albertans and Canadians more broadly speaking," Gil McGowan said Wednesday after a speech to the Canadian Industrial Relations Association.

"It shouldn't be heresy for people to ask questions about whether or not the oilsands are being developed in an appropriate way," he added.

"It shouldn't be heresy to say instead of shipping raw bitumen down the pipeline we should be keeping it here and creating jobs in refining and upgrading."

McGowan said he's angry because for years anyone who has tried to raise legitimate concerns about oilsands development has been "shouted down."

"Every time anyone, whether it's here in Alberta or across the country, raises questions about the approach the Alberta government and oil companies are taking in developing the oilsands, they're shouted down. They're demonized. They're dismissed," McGowan said.

"We've had the ghost of the national energy program thrown in our face."

Mulcair believes booming energy exports, particularly from the oilsands, have created an artificially high dollar that has, in turn, hollowed out Canada's manufacturing sector — an economic phenomenon dubbed the "Dutch disease.''

He has insisted that statistics on manufacturing job losses are "irrefutable'' and that "everyone'' agrees more than half of those losses are the direct result of the artificially high Canadian dollar created by booming energy exports, particularly from Alberta's oilsands.

Mulcair is to tour the oilsands near Fort McMurray on Thursday morning. He is then to meet with the mayor of the municipality before he returns to Edmonton for a news conference.

Huffington Post/Canadian Press, Wed May 30 2012

Labour leader represents 25,000 oil sands workers in Alberta

CALGARY – In a keynote address to academics at the University of Calgary, Alberta Federation of Labour President Gil McGowan today said that instead of vilifying federal NDP leader Tom Mulcair , Albertans should thank him for igniting a useful and long overdue debate on the pace of development in the oil sands (click here for backgrounder).

McGowan welcomed Mulcair's view that Canadians need to have a full discussion about the future of our most important natural resource and biggest economic driver.

"The oil sands are crucially important to the economy. That's why we can't afford to get it wrong. And we are getting it wrong," says McGowan.

McGowan says the wild-west pace of development in the oil sands is driving up the Canadian dollar, creating a labour shortage, driving up costs for business, and creating an unbalanced economy. Government failure to capture appropriate royalties makes the situation worse.

The President of the AFL – which represents 145,000 Albertans, 25,000 of whom work in the oil sands and energy-related construction – says Mulcair was vilified by Conservative politicians using what McGowan calls "bully economics" tactics.

"Critics have tried to dismiss Mulcair as an outsider who doesn't understand our province or the oil sands. But the truth is that many knowledgeable and thoughtful Albertans share his concerns," says McGowan.

"Let's be clear: no one in this conversation is objecting to development in the oil sands. Not Thomas Mulcair, not the Alberta Federation of Labour and certainly not a number of conservative economists and former PC politicians who share many of our concerns. We're not questioning the wisdom of developing the oil sands. What we're questioning is the current wild-west model for development – the pace of development. Surely we all benefit when we can have a thoughtful discussion about pace."

"I'm an Albertan. A proud Albertan," concluded McGowan. "As Tom Mulcair visits Alberta tomorrow, I want to be the first to welcome the conversation he started about the oil sands. Let's have a clear-eyed conversation about the current development model in the oil sands, and be open to the idea that we can put Albertans – and Canadians – before international oil companies in how we develop this important resource."

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MEDIA:

For more information call: Gil McGowan, President @ 780-218-9888 (cell) or 780-483-3021 (office).

EDMONTON - Thirty workers in Edmonton have been laid off by a company that was awarded a $1-billion government contract to upgrade light-armoured vehicles for the Canadian Forces.

Edmonton-Strathcona MP Linda Duncan said employees at General Dynamics Land Systems-Canada's plant in Edmonton were escorted from the building last week as a result of the job cuts, and on Wednesday questioned Minister of Public Works and Government Services Rona Ambrose about it in the House of Commons.

In October, Ambrose participated in a high-profile announcement about the contract, which the government said would sustain 110 jobs at General Dynamics' support-services facility in Edmonton.

Without being specific, the MP for Edmonton-Spruce Grove, confirmed during question period that layoffs had occurred, and later Wednesday a spokesman for the company acknowledged temporary cutbacks have taken place.

Ken Yamashita, manager of corporate affairs for General Dynamics Land Systems-Canada, said the layoffs are unrelated to the project to upgrade 550 LAV III combat vehicles. Workers who were laid off are expected to be rehired when the upgrading program begins later this year or early in 2013, Yamashita said.

Work is to be spread out between the company's facilities in Edmonton and London, Ont.

Gil McGowan, president of the Alberta Federation of Labour, said Wednesday he had been alerted about impending layoffs at General Dynamics' local plant. As Duncan did in Ottawa, he questioned whether the government had done its due diligence before awarding the contract.

"What this goes to is the whole issue of what the government is doing, and how they are giving away taxpayers dollars," said Duncan, who is a New Democrat. "I thought the response I received (from Ambrose) was stunning.

"There should be accountability when it comes to taxpayers' dollars. It is our money."

Yamashita said the work that is currently being done in Edmonton is preparation for the upgrading project.

"All this is a temporary dip in employment," he said. "The jobs for the project are secure."

Edmonton Journal, Wed May 30 2012
Byline: Marty Klinkenberg

Health science professionals in Alberta meet for two days to discuss upcoming challenges.

Edmonton (30 May 2012) - Members from across Alberta will be gathering on May 31 and June 1 for the Annual General Meeting of the Health Sciences Association of Alberta (HSAA/NUPGE).

This meeting provides members with an opportunity to discuss the successes they have had over the last year and strategize around the upcoming challenges within the province and nationally.

HSAA President Elisabeth Ballerman will welcome participants on May 31 kicking off the two-day meeting. Later there will be a presentation by the HSAA/NUPGE Champions 4 Pensions on the pension component of the All Together Now! campaign.

Members will hear from various guest speakers including Gil McGowan from the Alberta Federation of Labour, Winston Gereluk of the Alberta Labour History Institute and Jan Reimer of the Alberta Council of Women's Shelters.

On Friday, there will be a panel discussion about the state of health care in the province with representatives from Public Interest Alberta, Friends of Medicare and the Parkland Institute.

Renowned author and activist Judy Rebick is also featured as the AGM's keynote speaker.

NUPGE, Wed May 30 2012

It's not a good time to be organized labour, or most types of labour, in Canada.

And I'd define "time" as the period when Stephen Harper is Prime Minister of Canada. It began as a minor concern back in 1996 and seems likely to continue at least until the Tories' year-old majority in Parliament faces an election in or around 2015.

A booming economy in the West has unemployment at 7.3 per cent nationally, so it's not the dark days of labour strife in the 1970s and early '80s. Regardless, unions are battling the Harper government over their right to strike while the Conservatives legislate changes that raise the retirement age and restrict employment insurance benefits.

Ottawa also just repealed - deep within the omnibus, and/or ominous, 452-page 2012 budget - a relatively obscure but significant piece of legislation called the Fair Wages and Hours of Labour Act. Depending on your personal politics, it's either music to your ears or a funeral dirge.

"Connect the dots," says Gil McGowan, the president of the Alberta Federation of Labour.

"This is not just a war on unions. It's an attack on all working people in Canada to fundamentally change the labour market in ways that benefit employers.''

Others, like Canadian Chamber of Commerce president Perrin Beatty, applaud the fact Ottawa is moving to address the persistent labour shortages in the western provinces and he urges more action to resolve "the No. 1 issue" for business in the country.

A number of events have pushed labour issues to the forefront of the policy agenda.

On Monday, Labour Minister Lisa Raitt introduced back-to-work legislation to bring an end to a strike by 4,800 workers at Calgary-based Canadian Pacific Railway.

Earlier, Human Resources Minister Diane Finley announced Employment Insurance benefits would be scaled back and the provisions to qualify for payments under the program that is funded by employers and workers would be stricter.

A story this week by The Canadian Press on the unexplained repeal of the Fair Wages and Hours of Labour Act simply asked: "Is the Harper government fundamentally anti-labour?"

Most observers would describe Harper's Tories as ideologically strongly pro-business, highly opposed to unions and collective bargaining, and steadfast about reducing Ottawa's $23.5-billion budget deficit. In that respect their actions hardly come as a surprise.

Canadian Pacific wouldn't be the first time Harper used back-to-work legislation. In the year since winning his first majority in Parliament last May, his government used it three times - once with Canada Post and twice with Air Canada.

To be fair, the Tories aren't the only Canadian government to override collectively bargained rights of workers.

In 1997, Liberal prime minister Jean Chretien ended a two-week postal strike by imposing a settlement and current Liberal Leader Bob Rae's "social contract" with Ontario's public sector unions when he was NDP premier in the early 1990s arbitrarily rewrote contracts to address budget woes.

The federal NDP has allowed back-to-work legislation to pass.

For the first five years of Confederation, union activity was a criminal act in Canada. It was 1872, near the end of the Industrial Revolution, when Parliament passed the Trade Unions Act.

Labour leaders would contend it's not simply a coincidence growth of the union movement in the 20th century corresponded with improvements in public health care, public education and the overall working conditions for employees in Canada.

The percentage of working Canadians represented by unions peaked in the 1980s at 38 per cent. It's now about 30 per cent.

Now, Canada's biggest unions are looking at a possible merger. The Canadian Auto Workers and the Communication, Energy and Paperworkers also acknowledged they're looking to the unemployed and the retired as potential new members.

Critics, mostly union leaders and academics, contend Harper's government is abusing labour laws.

One issue in the CP strike centres on a provision Canadian Labour Code that allows Ottawa to force employees to continue to provide services "to prevent an immediate and danger to the safety or health of the public."

Raitt has said she's considering changing the code so "the economy" is deemed essential service for the country.

While the unions fight on, it's uncertain how much clout organized labour carries these days.

The movement isn't what it once was and the report on the CAW/CEP merger acknowledged a goal is to change a perception unions aren't relevant in today's society.

Given their challenges, and common foe in Ottawa, teaming up likely makes sense.

Harper famously said in 1997 "Canada is a Northern European welfare state in the worst sense of the term," so you can pretty much see how public policy in Ottawa is going over the rest of his mandate.

Perhaps the best hope for labour leaders might just be that for all of Harper's neo-conservative zeal, the politician in him knows it's smart to get the heavy lifting done in year one of the mandate and hope that voters forget, or at least accept, it.

It means 2012 is shaping up to be a historic year in labour relations in Canada, historically bad.

canada.com, Mon May 28 2012
Byline: Stephen Ewart

It's not a good time to be organized labour, or most types of labour, in Canada.

And I'd define "time" as the period when Stephen Harper is Prime Minister of Canada. It began as a minor concern back in 1996 and seems likely to continue at least until the Tories' year-old majority in Parliament faces an election in or around 2015.

A booming economy in the West has unemployment at 7.3 per cent nationally, so it's not the dark days of labour strife in the 1970s and early '80s. Regardless, unions are battling the Harper government over their right to strike while the Conservatives legislate changes that raise the retirement age and restrict employment insurance benefits.

Ottawa also just repealed - deep within the omnibus, and/or ominous, 452-page 2012 budget - a relatively obscure but significant piece of legislation called the Fair Wages and Hours of Labour Act. Depending on your personal politics, it's either music to your ears or a funeral dirge.

"Connect the dots," urges Gil McGowan, the president of the Alberta Federation of Labour.

"This is not just a war on unions. It's an attack on all working people in Canada to fundamentally change the labour market in ways that benefit employers," McGowan said.

Others, like Canadian Chamber of Commerce president Perrin Beatty, applaud the fact Ottawa is moving to address the persistent labour shortages in the western provinces and he urges more action to resolve "the No. 1 issue" for business in the country.

A number of events have pushed labour issues to the forefront of the policy agenda.

On Wednesday, Labour Minister Lisa Raitt suggested she could table back-to-work legislation as early as Monday when Parliament resumes to bring an end to a strike by 4,800 workers at Calgarybased Canadian Pacific Railway that began Wednesday.

On Thursday, Human Resources Minister Diane Finley announced Employment Insurance benefits would be scaled back and the provisions to qualify for payments under the program that is funded by employers and workers would be stricter.

A story this week by The Canadian Press on the unexplained repeal of the Fair Wages and Hours of Labour Act simply asked: "Is the Harper government fundamentally anti-labour?"

Most observers would describe Harper's Tories as ideologically strongly pro-business, highly opposed to unions and collective bargaining, and steadfast about reducing Ottawa's $23.5-billion budget deficit. In that respect their actions hardly come as a surprise.

CP wouldn't be the first time Harper used back-to-work legislation. In the year since winning his first majority in Parliament last May, his government used it three times - once with Canada Post and twice with Air Canada.

To be fair, the Tories aren't the only Canadian government to override collectively bargained rights of workers.

In 1997, Liberal Prime Minister Jean Chretien ended a two-week postal strike by imposing a settlement and current Liberal Leader Bob Rae's "social contract" with Ontario's public sector unions when he was NDP premier in the early 1990s arbitrarily rewrote contracts to address budget woes.

The federal NDP has allowed back-to-work legislation to pass.

For the first five years of Confederation, union activity was a criminal act in Canada. It was 1872, near the end of the Industrial Revolution, when Parliament passed the Trade Unions Act.

Labour leaders would contend it's not simply a coincidence growth of the union movement in the 20th century corresponded with improvements in public health care, public education and the overall working conditions for employees in Canada.

The percentage of working Canadians represented by unions peaked in the 1980s at 38 per cent. It's now about 30 per cent.

This week it was revealed two of Canada's biggest unions were looking at a possible merger. The Canadian Auto Workers and the Communication, Energy and Paperworkers also acknowledged they're looking to the unemployed and the retired as potential new members.

Critics, mostly union leaders and academics, contend Harper's government is abusing labour laws.

One issue in the CP strike centres on a provision Canadian Labour Code that allows Ottawa to force employees to continue to provide services "to prevent an immediate and danger to the safety or health of the public."

Raitt has said she's considering changing the code so "the economy" is deemed essential service for the country.

She's warned the CP strike could cost $540 million in economic activity per week in Canada's $1.8-trillion annual economy.

"The Canadian government will step in on the basis of the national economy and the greater public interest at some point." Raitt said.

While the unions fight on, it's uncertain how much clout organized labour carries these days.

The movement isn't what it once was and the report on the CAWCEP merger acknowledged a goal is to change a perception unions aren't relevant in today's society.

Given their challenges, and common foe in Ottawa, teaming up likely makes sense.

Harper famously said in 1997 "Canada is a Northern European welfare state in the worst sense of the term," so you can pretty much see how public policy in Ottawa is going over the rest of his mandate.

Perhaps the best hope for labour leaders might just be that for all of Harper's neo-conservative zeal, the politician in him knows it's smart to get the heavy lifting done in year one of the mandate and hope that voters forget, or at least accept, it.

It means 2012 is shaping up to be a historic year in labour relations in Canada, historically bad.

Calgary Herald, Sat May 26 2012
Byline: Stephen Ewart

Council to seek provincial, federal help with $1.8B plan

City council has voted to build the $1.8-billion southeast LRT line as what could be one of Edmonton's largest publicprivate partnerships.

The decision, made this month following a closeddoor meeting, will see Mayor Stephen Mandel write to Premier Alison Redford asking for special provincial funding to support the so-called P3 project.

The city will also apply to the federal P3 fund, a move Coun. Don Iveson hopes will raise as much as $300 million to $400 million of the $1 billion Edmonton needs to wrangle for the LRT from the other two levels of government.

"Frankly, doing this seems to be the only way we can get federal funding," he says.

"This is one strategy, but the program isn't big enough to fund the entire LRT system."

A P3 contract generally involves hiring companies to design, finance, build and maintain infrastructure, such as schools or roads, for terms that can last several decades.

While the provincial government has used P3s to construct a dozen schools in Edmonton, along with three sections of Anthony Henday Drive worth $3.7 billion, the city hasn't built anything with a P3.

The issue was debated in private because confidential financial details were involved that could affect negotiations with potential bidders.

"There's a big range with P3s as to how much you hand over to the private operator and how much you retain control over as the city," Iveson says.

"Where we fall on that range will be released at the appropriate time, but we're just not ready to do that at this time."

A 2010 PricewaterhouseCoopers study determined a P3 could build the entire lowfloor LRT from Lewis Estates to Mill Woods, then run and maintain it for 30 years, for up to 10 per cent less than traditional methods.

Wayne Mandryk, manager of LRT design and construction, says there are expected to be similar savings just for the section from downtown to Mill Woods, which was the basis of the council decision.

He hopes to hear how much money is available from the federal and provincial governments by the end of the year, and if all goes well construction could start in 2014.

However, Alberta Federation of Labour president Gil McGowan says he's "profoundly disappointed" with the city's move.

"P3s almost never work out in the public interest. Governments around the world have had experience with P3s, and in almost all cases they end up costing taxpayers more and creating enormous headaches down the line."

Governments can borrow for less than private firms, and future issues often boost expenses, McGowan says.

"It may look cheaper up front, but the experience with P3s is clear. The private developers are never satisfied with the amount of money the governments put on the table in the beginning, and come back asking for more."

Coun. Karen Leibovici, who voted against the motion along with Coun. Linda Sloan, says her objection was the treatment of the west LRT line rather than using a P3.

She's concerned this portion of the project is being put on the back burner rather than being viewed as the next phase of a complete system.

"In documents it became clear to me the administration was saying, 'We will build a piece of it, eventually we will build the west line,' but it was an if, not a when," Leibovici says.

"The west part of the line has to be an integral part of the LRT - (construction) has to be continual."

Edmonton Journal, Sat May 26 2012
Byline: Gordon Kent

New changes will tilt labour market in favour of low-wage employers

Changes to EI announced today pull back the curtain on Harper's low-wage agenda says the Alberta Federation of Labour.

"These changes will drive down wages eventually and inevitably force people into jobs they don't want at wages lower than their previous job" says AFL President Gil McGowan.

The Federation, which represents over 140,000 workers across the province, warns that this morning's announcement by Human Resources Minister Diane Finley will inevitably hurt all working families in the country, including here in Alberta.

"To add insult to injury, rather than talking to Canadians about his sweeping changes to EI, the government of Stephen Harper buried the new measures in the omnibus budget bill," says McGowan.

"The way these announcements were made shows the depth of secrecy and anti-labour sentiment espoused by the Conservative Government of Stephen Harper."

Under the new regulations – planned for early 2013 – there will be three new categories for unemployed workers. Each class of worker will be forced, by varying degrees, to consider jobs with lower and lower wages than they previously earned. For example, an Albertan who is a "frequent EI user,"' working in industrial construction and facing regular layoffs and contract work, would be forced to accept any work for which they are qualified for and take a pay cut up to 30 per cent less than their previous hourly wage.

McGowan underscores that new EI measures mark a drastic shift in how the labour market will operate in Canada. "These changes radically alter labour market pressures in favour of employers offering low wage jobs to Canadians."

"When the labour market functions as it should, employers strengthen and increase wages to attract workers. These new changes allow employers to simply sit back, wait, and keep wages low for Canadians. Eventually, an unemployed worker will be bullied into a low paying job," says Gil McGowan.

"These changes coupled with plans by the Federal Conservatives to get rid of the Fair Wages and Labour Act, and a ramping up of the Temporary Foreign Worker Program, show that Canada is on a crash course towards labour austerity and conditions that are clearly in favour of employers, not workers."

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AFL President Gil McGowan will be available to the media at 1:30 pm at the CUPE Western Municipal Convention located at the Coast Edmonton Plaza Hotel located at 10155 105 Street in Edmonton. He can be reached by phone at 780-218-9888.

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Backgrounder

With the Conservative government's changes to the Employment Insurance (EI) system, unemployed workers will be pressured into taking jobs with lower wages than they had when they were employed. This pressure increases the longer a worker is unemployed and will increase faster based on workers' history of EI claims.

The Conservatives now place claimants into three categories:

• Long-tenured workers: workers who received 35 or fewer weeks of regular or fishing EI over the last five years. These workers will be allowed to restrict their job searching to positions that pay 90 per cent of their previous earnings and are in their "usual" occupation.
• Frequent claimants: workers who had three or more regular and/or fishing claims and received over 60 weeks of regular and/or fishing benefits in the past five years.
• Occasional claimants: workers not captured under the two above definitions.

All workers will be forced to accept wages lower than those they earned while working the longer they receive EI benefits.

Studies show that workers with high levels of education take longer to look for and find a job when they are unemployed.

Under the Conservatives' changes to the EI system, workers with high levels of education could be forced into jobs that are below their skill set or usual wage range the longer they spend looking for suitable employment.

These changes will have major consequences to Canada's labour market. Employers now do not have to increase wages to attract workers. They can simply sit back and wait for unemployed workers to accept low-wage jobs.