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A Conservative Private Member's Bill to be debated in Parliament today (Thursday) is part of an organized campaign by the Harper government to silence all those who oppose its right-wing agenda, says the leader of Alberta's largest labour organization.

"Democracy is in danger when voices are silenced – and Bill C-317 is an attempt to weaken and silence the labour movement," says Gil McGowan, president of the Alberta Federation of Labour (AFL), which represents 145,000 workers.

"The measures proposed in this bill have nothing to do with transparency or making unions accountable. No other organizations – including corporations or even the government itself – are subject to the levels of disclosure proposed in the bill. It would be very difficult for any organization to comply with these deliberately onerous rules – and the Conservatives know it. This is clearly an attempt to tie the labour movement in knots and to weaken unions as a force to be reckoned with."

McGowan say Bill C-317 should be seen as just the latest part of a larger and deliberate campaign by the Harper government to silence all voices that oppose it.

McGowan points out that the Harper government has silence prominent individuals like former Veterans Ombudsman Col. Pat Stogran; former Statistics Canada chief Munir Sheikh ; and former head of Rights and Democracy Rémy Beauregard. Meanwhile, many non-government organizations that see the world differently than the Tories have had their funding cut by the Harper government, including Kairos, the organization of Canadian churches working for justice and peace; the Office of Democratic Governance at the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA); and the Status of Women Canada. The Harper government's cutting of funding for political parties is also designed to stifle opposition voices, says McGowan.

"With Bill C-317, the Conservatives are trying to drive another nail in the coffin of democratic debate by going after unions, who have historically been a strong voice in fighting for the rights of all Canadians, whether union members or not. They know that unions are part of the 60 per cent of Canadian who don't support Harper's vision for a meaner, less progressive Canada. And they want to trip us up before we can help rally the troops to defend a vision of a more progressive Canada."

As Nobel prize-winning economist Paul Krugman said earlier this year about the attack on unions in Wisconsin, "... it's important to have institutions that can act as counterweights to the power of big money. And unions are among the most important of these institutions."

Says McGowan: "This attack on civil society must not be allowed to succeed. The Harper government fails to understand that Canada is stronger when many voices are heard. Harper appears to fear and be angered by anyone who doesn't agree with him. He wants Canada to be a nation of Yes Men and Women, who hear and obey, but do not question."

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MEDIA CONTACT: Gil McGowan, AFL president, 780-218-9888

For more complete lists of organizations and individuals attacked by the Harper government, visit http://rabble.ca/news/2011/04/stephen-harpers-firing-range-list-87-organizations-and-people-attacked-five-years and http://www.cep.ca/pub/funding-cuts-harper-government

Alberta labour groups are calling on the province to do more to prevent a growing number of workplace fatalities.

The call for action comes a day after an Edmonton worker was killed by a steel beam that collapsed at an Edmonton jobsite.

The employee's death marks Alberta's 14th workplace fatality this year [correction: the total number of workplace fatalities for 2011 to date is 140, not 14] which is four more than in all of 2010.

Construction worker Ali Fattah says nobody seems to be taking the situation seriously so it is becoming more dangerous.

He says a lot of the accidents are preventable.

Barrie Harrison, with the Occupational Health and Safety board, is among those at the provincial level working to prevent what he admits are too many injuries and fatalities in an inherently dangerous construction sector.

''Look at the equipment they're working with and the jobs they perform. That's why Occupational Health and Safety has laws in place. That's why we expect them to be followed. Many times when they're not, they end up with serious injuries or fatalities,'' he says.

Harrison cites worker and employer safety education as a crucial part of the provincial safety strategy. He also points to the hiring of new OHS inspectors and targeted jobsite inspections that are intended to make jobsites safer.

While the Alberta Federation of Labour agrees education is part of the solution, it feels what the province is doing isn't enough.

The labour group's Gil McGowan says in Alberta the new inspectors only replace the inspectors who were laid-off during the Klein years, and employers receive advanced warnings about the targeted inspections, which defeats their purpose.

He believes those factors contribute to the province lagging behind all others when it comes to safety.

McGowan also blames the high workplace fatality numbers on the province ignoring warnings, and not taking advantage of a lull in development to adequately prepare for safety issued related to our province's returning growth.

''All the more experienced people are going to work on the more lucrative oilsands-related projects,'' he says. ''So the employers in those sectors are throwing basically every warm body they can on the work site. Sometimes they're not well-trained, sometimes they're going inexperienced, and you couple that inexperience with a go, go, go mentality that a lot of these employers have to get the job done, and it's a recipe for accidents and fatalities.''

McGowan feels further tragedies could be averted if the government puts what he believes is just talk into action _ specifically more unannounced inspections, and a more aggressive approach to prosecuting employers who put their workers at risk.

OHS Canada, Thurs Oct 20 2011

A day after an accident at a worksite on the northwest edge of the city ended in the death of a steelworker, the Alberta Federation of Labour is calling safer working environments.

Gil McGowan with the Alberta Federation of Labour said the number of workplace fatalities has jumped this year, and he said changes need to be made to prevent these tragedies from occurring.

"From our perspective, the situation is not going to improve until both governments and our employers in this province start to get more serious about workplace health and safety," McGowan said.

Over a day after the tragedy, investigators with Occupational Health and Safety still aren't sure why an I-beam fell as workers were attempting to place it on a skeletal structure.

Emergency crews were called to the worksite located at 145 Avenue and 156 Street at about 3:15 Tuesday afternoon.

"For some unknown reason, the I-beam fell," Barrie Harrison with Occupational Health and Safety said. "It struck the arm of this manlift which caused the manlift to tip over,

"This worker was in the basket of the manlift and fell approximately fifty feet with the manlift."

The victim has been identified as 28-year-old Kane Thorne, he had moved to Edmonton from Newfoundland about six years ago, a member of his family told CTV News.

"He had a fiancée, her name was Jolene, she has a child," Thorne's cousion Justin Jarvis told CTV News in a phone interview. "He had a good paying job, he was happy, his parents were happy for him."

Officials investigating the incident said it's too early to find out exactly what happened Tuesday afternoon.

"We need to find out not only what happened here, but determine what needs to be done, so it doesn't happen not just on this site, but anywhere else in the province," Harrison said.

The worksite will remain closed until OHS allows work to continue.

OHS is investigating, but officials said results might not be released for several months.

CTV News Edmonton, Wed Oct 19 2011

Alberta labour groups are calling on the province to do more to prevent a growing number of workplace fatalities.

The call for action comes a day after an Edmonton worker was killed by a steel beam that collapsed at a west-end jobsite.

The employee's death marks Alberta's 14th workplace fatality this year, which is four more than in all of 2010 - a disturbing statistic for those working in the construction sector.

"Nobody's actually taking it serious so it is becoming more dangerous," says construction worker, Ali Fattah. "Construction people should stop and think about what they're going to do...and we could prevent some of this stuff."

Barrie Harrison, with the Occupational Health and Safety board, is among those at the provincial level working to prevent what he admits are too many injuries and fatalities in an inherently dangerous construction sector.

"Look at the equipment they're working with and the jobs they perform. That's why Occupational Health and Safety has laws in place. That's why we expect them to be followed. Many times when they're not, they end up with serious injuries or fatalities," he says.

Harrison cites worker and employer safety education as a crucial part of the provincial safety strategy. He also points to the hiring of new OHS inspectors and targeted jobsite inspections that are intended to make jobsites safer.

While the Alberta Federation of Labour agrees education is part of the solution, it feels what the province is doing isn't enough.

The labour group's Gil McGowan says Alberta the new inspectors only replace the inspectors who were laid-off during the Klein years, and employers receive advanced warnings about the targeted inspections, which defeats their purpose. He believes these factors contribute to our province lagging behind all others when it comes to safety.

McGowan also blames the high workplace fatality numbers on the province ignoring warnings, and not taking advantage of a lull in development to adequately prepare for safety issued related to our province's returning growth.

"All the more experienced people are going to work on the more lucrative oilsands-related projects," he says. "So the employers in those sectors are throwing basically every warm body they can on the work site. Sometimes they're not well-trained, sometimes they're going inexperienced, and you couple that inexperience with a go, go, go mentality that a lot of these employers have to get the job done, and it's a recipe for accidents and fatalities."

McGowan feels further tragedies could be averted if the government puts what he believes is just talk into action - specifically more unannounced inspections, and a more aggressive approach to prosecuting employers who put their workers at risk.

"If we don't get our act together now on inspection, enforcement and prosecution, then we're going to see more incidents like the one that we saw yesterday."

Global TV Edmonton, Wed Oct 19 2011

EDMONTON _ Alberta NDP Leader Brian Mason is demanding that Premier Alison Redford intervene with the federal government in a dispute over temporary foreign workers in the oilsands.

Mason says 200 unionized insulators at Suncor´s Firebag 3 site were denied work on a project earlier this month after the employer decided to look overseas.

"She needs to pick up the phone to her federal counterparts and say, ´We need to fix this,"´ Mason said Wednesday.

"We need to make sure when this program is utilized by employers there is a serious attempt to determine if there are Alberta workers available for the jobs."

Mason stressed he is not against the concept of a foreign worker program, but added he doesn think "these jobs should be left for temporary foreign workers when there are Albertans (available) who are skilled and able to do the jobs."

Flint Energy recently got permission to bring in workers from Portugal and the Philippines after it reported that it couldn´t find sufficient skilled help in Canada.

The union says its workers could have joined the new project, but would have had to accept lower wages under the umbrella of a different union contracted to do the work.

Mason says it´s one more example of a disturbing trend in which temporary foreign workers are used to undercut unions and depress wages.

Redford´s office directed calls to the Intergovernmental, International and Aboriginal Relations Department. Department spokesman Sonia Sinha says officials are discussing the Flint issue with Ottawa as part of an ongoing discussion on how to improve the program.

Immigration is run by the federal government but has direct impact on provinces such as Alberta, which is looking for workers to fill jobs in its rapidly growing oilpatch.

Federal statistics show there were more than 42,000 temporary foreign workers in Alberta last year _ a quarter of all such workers in Canada.

In some respects, the issue has the Alberta government and opposition singing from the same song sheet.

Last month, then employment minister Thomas Lukaszuk wrote a letter to federal Immigration Minister Jason Kenney asking that the program be fixed. In the note, Lukaszuk said long-term reliance on the program doesn´t help workers or the communities they work in.

Lukaszuk said the rules leave workers in limbo _ free to exercise their rights to safe employment but with the knowledge that doing so may jeopardize their chances of staying in Canada.

Kenney has promised to revamp the program to eliminate red tape, reduce redundancy and make sure people with the right skills are getting matched with the jobs that need filling.

Ottawa is also looking to recruit more help from south of the border. More and more Americans are looking to Canada for work as the U.S. economy continues to falter.

The Alberta Federation of Labour has suggested the province follow the lead of Manitoba, which keeps closer track of temporary foreign workers to determine where they´re working, what they´re doing and at what skill level.

Oilweek, Wed Oct 19 2011

It has been 20 years since India adopted free-market policies and opened up its economy to the world.

Liberalised India reduced public investment and expenditure and encouraged foreign investment and private enterprise.

But what has all this meant for the working class? Some say reduced government control has led to fair competition and hence better wages and working conditions.

"Not really," says senior left-wing trade unionist Aparna. She points out that competition increases pressure on workers.

"The post-liberalisation era saw companies increasingly hiring contract labour in private as well as public enterprises causing loss of job security," she says.

"As workers were forced to deal with management individually, traditional structures like trade unions became increasingly weak and insignificant."

That's a sentiment echoed by workers across the automobile sector in the northern Indian states of Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi.

Despite this, life now seems to have come full circle. Workers are again putting faith in the union structure, trying to forge unity between permanent and contractual labour for better negotiations with company managements.

But do modern-day trade unions have the same power as those of yesteryear? The workers don't have one correct answer to this, but point to a common thread in their unionising experience, that of the struggle to form a union.

Start Quote

As workers were forced to deal with management individually, traditional structures like trade unions becoming increasingly weak and insignificant"

End Quote

Aparna

Trade unionist

Worker rights

Indian labour laws guarantee workers the right to unionise. The Trade Unions Act, passed in 1926, allows workers to register unions with the Labour Department. These then have to be recognised by the company they work for.

But workers allege that privatisation has encouraged collusion between labour departments and company managements, making the process of registration of unions difficult - a charge vehemently denied by both.

Pradeep Fogaat, 30, is part of the 2,000-plus workforce at a plant run by India's leading carmaker, Maruti Suzuki.

He, along with all his co-workers, is on strike. Camping outside their factory in a makeshift tent, they are demanding their right to form a workers' union.

Maruti Suzuki is a joint venture partner of the Japanese company, Suzuki Motor Corporation, with almost 50% of India's booming car market.

But Pradeep alleges that the working conditions at the plant are bad. He says workers get very short breaks and lose their pay if they take even one day's leave.

Now they want to form a union to negotiate better conditions, but blame the management for scuttling their efforts by pressurising the workers through suspensions and lock-outs.

Continue reading the main story

"

Start Quote

We know we have to stay united, that's why we want our union"

End Quote

Pradeep Fogaat

Maruti Suzuki employee

But Maruti says that it already has a recognised union - and it accuses the workers of inefficiency and even sabotage at its plant.

Pradeep maintains that this is a management-supported puppet union, a popular route adopted by companies to complete the formality of having a workers' union.

"All of this started when we tried to get our union registered, we do not consider the existing union as our representative, the management is trying to divide the 40% permanent and 60% contract workers, but we know we have to stay united, that's why we want our union."

Maruti says it has lost more than $330m (£209m) in turnover because of these strikes, leading to production delays in its other big plant as well.

But the stand-off continues, as neither the management nor the workers are ready to budge from their positions.

'Constant threat'

This is the Maruti workers' third strike this year for the same demand. And Maruti is not the only case. Strikes demanding the right to form workers' unions have hit the automobile sector in northern India at frequent intervals.

Spare parts production company Rico faced a strike in 2009 which affected production in Ford and General Motors plants in Canada and the US.

Suzuki plants in different parts of India are seeing protests by workers Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India saw a strike in 2005 which was ended by violent police action.

While the Hero Honda agitation was successful and the company now has a robust workers' union, Rico workers had to bow down to their management.

Despite a chequered history, workers here seem to have faith in the organised trade union.

Radheyshyam (name changed on request) works with Munjal Shaw, a company that manufactures bike parts. He says that his company has never had a workers' union.

He has been working here for almost four years, but he is still on contract. In fact, 90% of his factory's labour force is on contract.

"Many of us have worked for many years at this factory and still are not regularised," he says.

"Since we are on contract, we are under the constant threat of being fired by our contractor and hence cannot raise our voice. Maybe if there was a union, things would change."

Resurgence?

But Radheyshyam knows that it is a catch-22 situation. With a very small part of his factory's workforce as permanent, they cannot apply to register themselves as a union.

Most trade unions in India are aligned to parliamentary parties and of these, leftist parties have traditionally been at the forefront of voicing workers' demands.

But instead of lending strength to them, senior trade unionist Aparna says that since liberalisation, as leftist parties joined governments, they have also followed government policies.

"The blame of the weakening union scenario lies at the doorstep of the organised unions themselves, as they have either been aligned to parliamentary parties or governments," she says.

"Their priorities have changed and they have operated in a broad political consensus of new economic policies."

Despite this, she says that the workers' renewed faith in unions has a future, as it depends to a large extent on their strength and commitment. And that is on an upswing again.

BBC News/Delhi, Wed Oct 19 2011

Dick Cheney was once a union man—after flunking out of Yale, the future vice president worked as an International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers lineman in Wyoming—but now his daughter is leading the fight to destroy unions in America.

The essential battle for organized labor in America this fall is in the state of Ohio, where voters will go to the polls in just three weeks to decide whether to overturn anti-labor legislation that Governor John Kasich and a Republican-controlled legislature forced on the state last spring.

If the anti-labor law is upheld, Kasich will be thanking Liz Cheney. The daughter of the former vice president has—along with former White House political czar Karl Rove—taken a leading role among the out-of-state groups that are raising money and implementing media campaigns to support the law.

Heavy spending by a group Cheney heads, in combination with spending by other corporate-allied national groups, offers Kasich the only hope he's got for winning a fight that is turning uglier by the day. And don't doubt for a moment that Dick Cheney's a part of this push; Liz Cheney has throughout her adult life worked closely with her father (she helped him prepare and promote his autobiography) and Liz's sister, Mary Cheney, says: "I think you'd be hard-pressed to find any daylight at all between Liz's and my father's views. It's not because she's been indoctrinated. It's because he's right."

Reasonable people might debate whether "he's right." But there's no doubt that the Cheneys are playing hardball in Ohio.

In so doing, they are positioning Liz Cheney as a major mover on the political right—since the state-based fights in Wisconsin and Ohio are major concerns of the corporations that fund conservative causes.

After the anti-labor law was enacted earlier this year, Ohioans reacted with passionate opposition to the gutting of collective bargaining rights for public employees. They were frightened by the threat the law posed to the ability of unions to advocate for firefighters, police officers, teachers and other public employees in the workplace, and to the prospect that weakened unions would be unable to counter corporate spin at election time. More than 1.3 million Ohioans signed petitions to put a veto referendum on the ballot. And polls from last summer indicated that likely voters were overwhelming opposed to Kasich's law.

Now, however, the fight over Issue 2, the referendum on whether to keep the anti-labor legislation on the books, is getting closer. Polls still show that most voters intend to cast "No on 2" ballots, indicating their rejection of the law and their desire that Ohio again respect collective bargaining rights. But the margin has narrowed in recent weeks, thanks to the millions of dollars being spent by corporate interests to try to save the law and, in so doing, to shore up Kasich's diminished political fortunes.

Acknowledged spending in Ohio by groups on both sides of the issue has already topped $3 million and, with three weeks to go before November 8, the big-money moment is yet to come. "We are spending a significant amount of money on the airwaves," Melissa Fazekas, the spokeswoman for the labor-backed We Are Ohio campaign said last week. "But we do think we'll be outspent at the end of the day."

That's a safe bet, as national corporate and conservative groups are rushing to defend Kasich and his anti-union policies. The Columbus Dispatch suggests that overall spending by groups that back the anti-labor law could easily top $20 million.

Liz Cheney's Alliance for America's Future is one of the most aggressive of the out-of-state special interest groups that have elbowed their way into the referendum fight. Cheney's group is part of a shadowy network of campaign organizations in which Dick's daughter serves as a principle operative. Another is called the "Partnership for America's Future," and in 2010, Cheney headed a group called "Send Harry Packing," which targeted Senate majority leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada. Some of the organizations are 527s, which means they must disclose contributions; others are 501(c)(4) organizations, which means they do not have to disclose the identities of donors. They trade money back and forth, and according to Public Citizen's Taylor Lincoln: "The Partnership for America's Future—whose principals include Mary Cheney, daughter of the former vice president—registered as a 527, just as American Crossroads initially did. But it simply reports that it receives all of its money from the Alliance for America's Future. The 'Alliance' is registered as a 501(c)(4)—enabling it and the groups to which it funnels money to operate under the cloak of secrecy."

How much Cheney's groups will spend in Ohio remains to be seen. But there is no question that they deal in big money. In 2010, Cheney told CBS News that her groups were budgeted to spend between $12 million and $15 million.

With a track record of backing Republicans 100 percent of the time, Cheney's groups are hyper-partisan, and they have frequently gotten in trouble for stretching the truth to score political points.

That's certainly been the case in Ohio.

Cheney's group began last month to flood Ohio with deceptive mailings that claim "voting yes on Issue 2 will give our communities the ability to get spending under control without raising taxes."

A mailing that just went out statewide declared: "We just can't afford to pay 100 percent of government employee benefits too."

"In this tough economy," the mailing continues, "it's just not fair to ask taxpayers to pay even more for salaries and benefits for government employees." Voting yes on Issue 2, it says, "means that government employees will make modest contributions to their benefits" by paying "at least 15 percent toward their health insurance coverage" and "just 10 percent toward their own retirement."

A Cleveland Plain Dealer PolitiFact Ohio review of the mailing concluded that it was "problematic" because the piece "leaves out important details needed to put the statement in context." Ultimately, the analysis concluded that the Cheney mailing rated "Half True" on its "Truth-O-Meter."

But it's worse than that.

The real lie is one of omission. What the Cheney mailings don't say is that the law undermines basic labor rights, eliminates effective collective bargaining and encourages communities to balance budgets on the backs of firefighters, police officers and teachers. Nor does Cheney mention that the cuts will undermine public services and public education at a time when Ohio cities have been rocked by factory closings and rising unemployment.

Of course, Liz Cheney is not concerned about the harm done to Ohioans and their communities by Kasich's law.

Cheney lives in northern Virginia, and she sends her kids to one of the most elite private schools in the country. She's weighing her political options, having already been talked up as a potential US Senate candidate.

Every campaign starts somewhere, however, and Liz Cheney has decided to wade into electoral politics as a champion of corporations who is willing to fund the drive to eliminate collective bargaining rights and wipe out trade unions.

The Nation, Tues Oct 18 2011

A protest, a press conference and an open-ended strike; workers say they will not rest until their colleagues, charged with attempting to murder their chief executive, are released

Telecom Egypt employees organised a protest this morning that finished in an open-ended strike, which they will continue until the release of five detained colleagues. A few hundred employees from the Opera region telecommunications hub, as well as some delegations from different telecommunication hubs all over Egypt, gathered in Opera Square on Tuesday morning, where the five employees were detained on 12 October.

Around the country, the staff of 40 other telecommunications hubs held strikes in solidarity with their detained colleagues. Thirty were located in Greater Cairo and ten in other governorates. Telecom Egypt's telephone directory service (140) and service hotline (111) have been out of service for several days in solidarity with the accused employees.

The anger of the employees, who have been protesting since the ouster of former president Hosni Mubarak, escalated after five of their colleagues were charged with the attempted murder of chief executive Mohamed Abdel Rehim. The accused employees are being held in detention for 15 days pending their case, news that further infuriated the workers.

"The strike will only end after the release of our five colleagues," Essam Abou Senna, a worker, told Ahram Online.

"They arrested five at random. Some of them were not even protesting," said engineer Sherif Mansour, member of the independent syndicate Telecom Egypt employees formed after the revolution.

"There are excesses from the prosecution that the defence registered, like the disrespect in the timing of the exposure of the accused in front of the prosecution. In consequence, two lawyers only attended the investigations with the five accused employees," says Ahmed Saber, one of the lawyers of the accused employees.

In addition to the release of their colleagues, which they consider a priority, workers demanded the resignation of CEO Mohamed Abdel Rahim and the company's board of directors, whom they accuse of corruption and of causing financial losses to the company. They also demanded revision of the salaries of the company's high officials. "The last report of the Central Auditing Organisation signalled many administrative and financial contraventions and this should be investigated. The board of administration is ruining the company," argued Sherif Mansour.

According to the workers, who held a press conference in parallel to the protest, many media outlets simply repeated the "false" accusations of the company's administration.

The workers say Abdel Rahim was visiting the Opera branch, and employees gathered to tell him their demands. He went to an office in the building and sent them a messenger, telling them he would not succumb to any of their demands. "So the workers started a sit-in in front of his office, but nobody attacked him. He locked himself in from inside the room, and didn't want to go out, but he was still able to receive whomever he wanted to," said Mansour.

Later on that night, military police helped Abdel Rahim to leave by cutting into his office from a neighbouring room.

Company management, for its part, denies all allegations of corruption.

"Whoever has proof of administrative or financial corruption by the board of directors should hand it over to the prosecutor general," Emad El-Azhary, Telecom Egypt's first executive vice president, told the Masrawy online news portal last week.

Telecom Egypt, a public monopoly of fixed landlines, provides 70 per cent of Internet service in Egypt, and is the sole provider of international phone services. The company also owns 45 per cent of mobile-phone operator Vodafone Egypt.

ahramonline, Tues Oct 18 2011

The Alberta Federation of Labour (AFL), which represents 145,000 workers across the province, made a clear declaration of support for the Occupy Calgary and Occupy Edmonton movements today. The protest actions are set to begin on Saturday in Edmonton's Winston Churchill Square and Calgary's Banker's Hall.

Unfair economic strategies that punish working families and recent attacks on the rights of Canadian workers to strike and collectively bargain are key factors in their support. A statement released by the Federation read:

"The Alberta Federation of Labour (AFL) believes in fairness for working families and all Albertans. As a result, we support the Occupy Edmonton and Occupy Calgary movements in their call for democratic and peaceful intervention into an economic system that has been failing to address the concerns and meet the needs of working people locally, nationally, and on a global scale."

AFL president Gil McGowan said the Federation's support of a movement that has spread to financial centres across North America is grounded in concerns that are specific to Alberta. "It doesn't add up," he said. "You have an affluent few in this province who are rewarded with billions of dollars of our public funds through generous giveaways, and at the same time there doesn't seem to be enough stable funding for our children's classrooms from year to year. How is that fair?"

Government attacks on workers are also top of mind for labour leaders. Alongside other provincial counterparts across Canada, the AFL is speaking up against the recent spate of unprecedented anti-union legislative maneuvering by governments. "Canada's workers have fought for historic victories that benefit everyone, like paid maternity leave. When you suddenly have a government that wants to take away the right of working people to negotiate fair conditions from their employers, you're going to see people stand up for what's right."

McGowan also adds that struggles faced by working families are not only unfair but unacceptable in such a wealthy province. "We can no longer ignore the obvious. Corporate wealth generated from our resources isn't reaching Alberta's families. We support the Occupy movements because they offer a sign of hope that things can change."

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MEDIA CONTACT: Gil McGowan, AFL president, 780-218-9888 (cell)

Greed and corruption that triggered mass protests in New York can be seen here at home in Alberta, says the Alberta Federation of Labour.

As protesters are set to march through Edmonton's Churchill Square as part of the 'occupy' movement, the AFL says the gap between rich and poor in Alberta is just as clear as the one in New York.

"We can no longer ignore the obvious. Corporate wealth generated from our resources isn't reaching Alberta's families," said Alberta Federation of Labour president Gil McGowan in a release.

"You have an affluent few in this province who are rewarded with billions of dollars of our public funds through generous giveaways, and at the same time there doesn't seem to be enough stable funding for our children's classrooms from year to year. How is that fair?"

Organizers say Saturday's rally — a play off New York's ongoing Occupy Wall Street movement — will give fed-up Edmontonians a chance to brainstorm solutions.

The group hasn't yet decided if they will set up a camp, as has been done in the more than 200 Canadian cities that have joined the movement since it began in New York on Sept. 17.

Edmonton Sun, Fri Oct 14 2011
Byline: Allison Saltz