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Vancouver - Through top-down deregulatory and environmental streamlining directives under the recently formed New West Partnership, the British Columbia, Alberta and Saskatchewan Ministries of Energy (for oil and gas) held four or more secret meetings since July 2011 to develop "joint action on issues related to unconventional shale gas development" concerning "water issues". In a leaked August 3, 2011 Alberta Minister's Briefing Note and a directive document called New West Partnership Collaboration and Information Sharing, Industry Water Use and Hydraulic Fracture Technology Project Charter (see attached backgrounder documents), the B.C. Ministry of Energy was designated the lead agency for the internal "working group" meetings.

According to a complaint by the Alberta Federation of Labour, the in-house meetings of government officials included what appears to be un-registered lobbyists with the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP). Participation from all other "external" stakeholders was excluded. The internal Minister Briefing Notes for B.C. and Saskatchewan have not as yet surfaced.

In addition to controversial deep shale gas policy directives about the withdrawal, use, toxic pollution and disposal of enormous volumes of fresh water sources (amidst other critical

environmental and pollution issues related to fracking), the Alberta Briefing Note describes how the "water and technology collaboration working group" also advised the government to develop "proactive" tax-payer funded public relations schemes "within government and industry in Alberta and across Canada" for "better environmental outcomes" in the "rapid development" of shale gas fracking development. Stated in the Project Charter, the proposal to "enhance communication of stakeholders and the public with consistent water use messages" is apparently based on "misinformation in the public media and communities facing shale gas development pressure" and "environmental ENGOs supporting a ill-informed campaign on hydraulic fracturing and water related issues in British Columbia and other jurisdictions."

The Project Charter document includes the meeting group's membership list naming the three

"external" representatives from CAPP: Richard Dunn, Lara Conrad and Christa Seaman. In contrast to information that identified the role and position of government participants, the corporate affiliations and roles of the three CAPP members were omitted. Dunn, who is vice-president of regulatory and external relations with Encana Corporation, is a registered provincial and federal lobbyist (the Hill Times reports that as a federal lobbyist Dunn is a "key voice in shaping the debate about Canada's environment and climate change strategy"). Conrad is the Regulatory & Government Relations Team Leader with Encana Corporation. Seaman, a former GHG ProjectsCoordinator with Canadian Natural Resources Limited, is a current registered lobbyist for CNRL2 and Shell Canada.

Of all shale gas companies operating in northeast B.C., Encana has the largest holdings of petroleum leases. Shell has a significant portfolio investment stake in proposed shale gas developments throughout the world, and has mounted a sophisticated public relations campaign.

On August 18, 2011, the Alberta Federation of Labour, which received a copy of the leaked

documents, quickly filed a complaint with Alberta's Ethics Commissioner on "a possible contravention of the Lobbyists Act." In the complaint, the Federation stated that "CAPP was not invited by the government to collaborate on public communication on Alberta shale gas development, rather CAPP approached the government.... although CAPP is in the Lobbyists Registry, none of the individuals lobbying the government on behalf of CAPP are registered as CAPP lobbyists." Based on its concerns, the Federation summarized that "it is our belief that the public interest has been undermined in this case", as "CAPP approached the government to take the lead in developing a government public relations campaign on shale gas development in Alberta."

Public relations and lobbying strategies by powerful and affluent industry organizations to access and develop public natural resources have occurred and evolved in Canada for quite some time. For instance, over a number of decades, the B.C. Council of Forest Industries (COFI), an alliance of national and international forest industry companies and corporations, effectively lobbied BC government administrations. It helped bypass environmental constraints and stifled public concerns while implementing an accelerated and unbridled rate of logging to liquidate old growth forests by clearcutting. During this period of profiteering, COFI accessed and ruined hundreds of public drinking watershed sources that had previously been protected through local, regional and provincial government policies, often defending the intrusions before politicians and the public with the mantra "logging enhances water quality". Like COFI, CAPP is attempting to inflict something similar within governments - albeit on a grander scale - on the controversial practice of hydraulic fracturing ("fracking") of deep shale gas.

Under the shadow of the New West Partnership, CAPP may be steering the way for an inter provincial sympathetic administration to help control and limit public debate on environmental and resource issues.

"The leaked documents from Alberta are fundamentally disturbing, and challenge the core principles of our democracy", says Will Koop, BC Tap Water Alliance Coordinator. "The elected leaders and executive energy administrators of western Canada are caving into the petroleum industry, and are excluding public stakeholders from the fracking table. What's more, if CAPP gets its way, not only will the public suffer from an ill-natured public relations scheme thrust upon it by its own governments, but it will have to fund it as well. Small wonder why and shame on the B.C. government for ignoring public demands since last April for a public inquiry into fracking practices in northeast BC."

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Vancouver Media Co-op, Wed Sept 7 2011

CLEVELAND -- Gov. John Kasich said today that a Republican loss on Senate Bill 5 this fall could make it easier for private-sector workers to unionize.

Speaking to about 250 people at an event hosted by the Harvard Business School Club of Northeast Ohio and the Association for Corporate Growth, Kasich said, "if this bill doesn't pass, don't be surprised if you see card check."

Senate Bill 5, which is subject to a voter referendum Nov. 8 through State Issue 2, weakens collective bargaining for 360,000 public employees in Ohio. It does not affect collective bargaining for unionized employees at private businesses.

When asked following his speech how a Senate Bill 5 defeat could lead to card check legislation in Ohio, Kasich said, "That might be the next thing; you just don't know."

Card check is an alternative, simplified method for employees to unionize by signing cards saying they want to be represented by a labor union. It is a major item on labor's national agenda, and is backed by many Democrats.

"You get people emboldened, you don't know what it will lead to," Kasich said. "It's a legitimate concern. There's a lot of things that could come. I'm not saying they will, but people who get emboldened, they do more aggressive things.

"These people who are in business, they live in fear of these kinds of things."

Senate Bill 5 was introduced and passed by Republicans in the legislature and signed by Kasich, also a Republican. Endorsements from business groups such as the Ohio Chamber of Commerce, the National Federation of Independent Businesses and the Ohio Manufacturers Association have been rolling in.

While Kasich warned of union expansion should the measure be repealed, he also said he didn't think Ohio "needed to go in that direction" when asked if it should become a right-to-work-state.

Kasich delivered his speech at Cleveland's Union Club, near Playhouse Square.

Columbus Dispatch, Wed Sept 8 2011
Byline: Joe Vardon

The British Columbia Ministry of Energy was designated a "lead agency" in a backroom collaboration with Alberta and Saskatchewan to address water concerns for the province's rapidly expanding shale gas industry. The New West Partnership, an undisclosed collaboration between Canada's three western provinces to expedite shale gas extraction, has held four secret meetings since July 2011 to discuss water issues related to fracking, according to a leaked briefing note, released today by the BC Tap Water Alliance (BCTWA).

The leaked document, including an attached directive, outlines the group's strategies to streamline gas production across the West while minimizing public and stakeholder involvement. The partnership project, which is aimed to design streamlined policy regarding gas extraction including the controversial technique fracking, is also posed to curtail public concern with "proactive" public relations campaigns that will respond to the "ill-informed campaigns" of environmental NGOs, public media and local communities.

The Project Charter outlines the New West Partnership's intentions to manage public opinion with 'consistent messages' regarding environmental concerns which are "potentially problematic" for shale gas development. Despite the group's pretense to stakeholder transparency and "enhanced communication," the only external body consulted so far is Canada's largest oil and gas lobby, the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP). According to the BCTWA press release, the internal meetings held by provincial regulators and government officials included three unregistered lobbyists representing CAPP, prompting a complaint from the Alberta Federation of Labour.

After receiving a copy of the leaked documents the Alberta Federation of Labour filed an official complaint with Alberta's Ethics Commissioner citing a "possible contravention of the Lobbyist Act." Although CAPP is a registered lobby body, the Federation conceded, none of the present lobbyists were registered to lobby on behalf of CAPP. The in-house meetings, where government officials hosted government and public relations consultants from Encana Corporation, Canadian Natural Resources Limited and Shell Canada, caused some disquiet for the Federation, causing them to state: "it is our belief that the public interest has been undermined in this case."

Shale gas extraction and fracking, although occurring at accelerating rates across the three provinces, have escaped much of the public approval process. In British Columbia especially, calls for an independent investigation into the process have gone largely unheeded. Similar demands in Alberta pose no exception.

"The leaked documents from Alberta are fundamentally disturbing, and challenge the core principles of our democracy" says BCTWA coordinator Will Koop. "The elected leaders and executive energy administrators of western Canada are caving into the petroleum industry, and are excluding public stakeholders from the fracking table."

"If CAPP gets its way, not only will the public suffer from an ill-natured public relations scheme thrust upon it by its own government, but it will have to fund it as well."

In an interview with DeSmogBlog, Koop went on to say, "I know from experience that the government has been ignoring our calls, calls from other groups, and from independent MLAs to investigate the process. This document and the information that is being leaked is going to help the public understand where the politics are going."

Part of the problem, says Koop, is that shale gas development tends to occur in remote areas. "I think in part the lack of public engagement has to do with where the fracking is occurring - its quite far removed from where the general public lives and there hasn't been enough critical coverage in the media over a period of a number of years to deal with these concerns."

"British Columbia is kind of being captured by the politics of Alberta and the issue of fracking hasn't really gotten the proper attention, evaluation and analysis by British Columbians." The government agencies in BC, continues Koop, are keeping their distance from the issue. The Ministry of Forests, he says, has not completed a thorough analysis of the lands being used and sold through the leasing process run by the BC Oil and Gas Commission. And the Commission itself is dropping the ball. "What we need is a comprehensive evaluation of what is going on and it isn't there. The Oil and Gas Commission is not doing it and they are the ones with the mandate to do so."

The 2011 BC Oil and Gas Conference, slated to begin tomorrow, is meant to be hosted in the spirit of "Communities Leading Change," yet the lack of community participation to date suggests that unconventional gas development is meant to occur with or without public consent. Like other jurisdictions, Canada's western provinces need to find the community voice necessary to join the discussion and to ensure that more than just industry lobbyists are at the table.

Desmogblog.com, Tues Sept 6 2011
Carol Linnitt

Labour Day is a holiday to honour the contributions that workers make every day to the economy and the communities in which they live. It's supposed to be a day when working people can put down their tools, spend time with their families and take satisfaction in what they've built.

Unfortunately, this Labour Day, instead of honouring the people who build and maintain our province's economic engine, the Alberta Conservatives are considering new ways to give them the shaft.

In particular, Employment Minister Thomas Lukaszuk, is - yet again - rolling out the welcome mat for an industry group that wants the government's help to lower wages for working Albertans. Last time around, it was the Canadian Restaurant and Foodservices Association that lobbied Lukaszuk for a lower minimum wage for workers who serve alcohol.

This time, it's an association of non-union construction firms. Calling themselves the Construction Competitiveness Coalition, they've asked Lukaszuk for changes to the provincial labour code that would make it difficult for unions to represent skilled tradespeople working on oilsands-related construction projects.

The motives of the coalition are clearly suspect. If they succeed in getting the changes they want, it would give non-union contractors an upper hand in bidding wars with unionized contractors (who, despite higher wages and benefits, continue to get half the work on Alberta's big industrial construction projects).

What the non-union lobby group is really asking the Tories to do is to use their legislative power to help one group of employers corner the market on industrial construction projects at the expense of another group of employers. They're also trying to transform the construction labour market so that skilled tradespeople have no choice but to work for non-union companies, even if those workers don't like the way the non-union firms deal with things like wages, benefits and safety.

Coalition spokesman Stephen Kushner says that Alberta needs to weaken unions because the province is "becoming known as a high-cost jurisdiction" and that this reputation is driving away investment. He even suggested that unions are to blame for the fact that 12 upgrader projects have been shelved.

These are what I call "snake-oil arguments": arguments that sound plausible on one level, but which rely on half-truths and leaps of logic.

It's true, for example, that costs are high in the oilsands. But union wages are not the problem. In fact, the recent agreement negotiated between unions and unionized construction firms provides exactly the kind of longer-term cost certainty that developers have been asking for.

The real challenges lie elsewhere. As a recent report from the consulting firm KPMG points out, costs are going up in the oilsands for several reasons, including increased costs for building materials like steel and cement; delays in engineering and project management; and the cost pressures that come with having too many major projects on the go at one time.

Most importantly, KPMG pointed out the obvious: the oilsands are expensive because it's hard to wring oil out of sand, especially in remote locations and in an inhospitable climate.

The suggestion that union wages caused upgrader projects to be shelved is equally ludicrous. Those projects were postponed because of falling oil prices during the global recession and they were mothballed for good because the Alberta government switched from promoting Alberta-based upgrading to acting as a cheerleader for mega-pipelines like the controversial Keystone XL, which make it more attractive to upgrade south of the border than in Alberta.

In the end, it can be argued that Alberta is a high-cost jurisdiction. But it can't be honestly argued that unions are to blame.

Busting unions won't make steel any cheaper and it won't improve our weather.

What it will do is enrich the owners of non-union construction firms at the expense of the owners and workers at other firms.

For the sake of the thousands of Alberta tradespeople who help keep our economic engine running, let's hope that all of the Tory leadership contenders see the non-union lobby group's proposal for what it is: a load of self-serving clap trap.

Gil McGowan is president of the Alberta Federation of Labour.

Calgary Herald, Mon Sept 5 2011

Edmonton Journal, Mon Sept 5 2011
"Union-busting no way to mark Labour Day: Construction lobby group only concerned with itself, not Alberta's economic health"

Alberta workers are under increasing under fire as the province takes a day off work Monday to celebrate their contribution to our communities and our economy.

"The Alberta government has just launched a secretive, behind-closed-door review of the Labour Code at the request of an anti-union lobby group," says Gil McGowan, president of the Alberta Federation of Labour (AFL), which represents 145,000 workers. "It has sent the lobby group's biased proposals to selected stakeholders for review and appointed an unbalanced review panel without a single voice of labour. This unfair approach cannot hope to provide a reasonable outcome. It is at attack on the labour movement and an attempt to slash the wages of working Albertans," he says.

"It is also an unfair attempt to get the government to show favouritism to non-union employers over their business competitors who use unionized labour," he says. "Is that what the Conservatives really want to stand for: reduced competition between firms, reduced choice for individuals and reduced standards of living for skilled tradespeople?"

Meanwhile, right-wing think-tanks including the Fraser Institute continue their propaganda campaign to weaken working families and unions.

"The institute's latest clap-trap report blamed the cancellation of oil-sands construction projects after 2008 on high labour costs, completely ignoring the global recession, falling oil prices and the effect of soaring infrastructure and material costs," says McGowan. "It also ignored a change in direction by the Alberta government to focus on shipping raw bitumen – and jobs – down the pipeline to the U.S., rather than on encouraging upgraders to be built here."

After more than 125 years of celebrating Labour Day in Canada, the Alberta government continues to lag behind other jurisdictions in protecting its working citizens.

"Alberta is the only province where farm workers continue to be excluded from occupational health and safety laws, as well as laws governing hours of work and overtime, statutory holidays, vacation pay, the right to refuse unsafe work and compensation if they are injured on the job. Domestic workers are also unfairly excluded from employment laws that protect other workers," he says. "Alberta is also one of only two jurisdictions in Canada that allow kids as young as 12 to hold down adult jobs."

McGowan is available for annual Labour Day comments this weekend. He will be attending the Edmonton and District Labour Council Labour Day BBQ for the unemployed and underemployed at Giovanni Caboto Park/Boys and Girls Club, 95 Street and 109 Avenue, Edmonton, 11 a.m., Monday, September 5th .

Nancy Furlong, AFL secretary treasurer, is also available for comments and will be at the Calgary Labour Day BBQ for the unemployed and underemployed at Calgary Olympic Plaza, 228 - 8 Avenue S.E., Calgary at 11 a.m., Monday, September 5th .

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MEDIA CONTACTS:

Gil McGowan, AFL president @ 780-218-9888 (cell)

Nancy Furlong, AFL secretary treasurer @ 780-720-8945 (cell)

To his credit, Alberta NDP leader Brian Mason has at least brought the increasingly cosmic debate over TransCanada Corp.'s Keystone expansion back to earth. Yesterday in the Calgary Herald, and again this morning on CBC Radio, Mason revived the old chestnut that bitumen exports undermine domestic job creation. In doing so, he artfully moved the conversation beyond the realm of fantasy so expertly occupied by Daryl Hannah and Superman's wife, err, Margot Kidder.

Labor groups and successive provincial governments have long argued that exporting raw bitumen sacrifices domestic jobs by discouraging construction of the multibillion-dollar mega-plants called upgraders. The plants, used to convert bitumen into synthetic crude oil, typically employ legions of tradespeople during construction. (More than 10,000 people worked on a recent expansion at Shell Canada Ltd.'s Scotford facility, for instance).

It makes sense for Mason to support building more of the plants. No politician in his right mind would argue against domestic job creation. And the pro-jobs, anti-export crowd is sure to grow in number and in volume as calls to put oil sands on global markets grow more acute.

Unfortunately, though, Mason, to say nothing of the Alberta Federation of Labour, ignores Alberta's own version of kryptonite. Whatever his bold pronouncements, the fact is there is a crippling paucity of men and women needed to wield hammers, fit pipe and weld steel in this province. Recall 2008-09, when the Industrial Heartland Region saw as many as seven or eight upgrader projects either shelved or permanently scrapped. Oil prices were a contributing factor, but labour constraints played no small role halting development.

Mason should know better. It's not exactly a secret that skilled tradesmen and women are in short supply. The oil sands are particularly pinched, of course – as recently as this week Employment and Immigration Minister Thomas Lukaszuk was in Texas and Illinois trying to rustle up extra bodies. Even conventional drillers are struggling to fill positions. "Right now everybody's basically short," Jerry Dawe, an instructor at Enform's Nisku campus, told me earlier this summer. "Manpower is just not there."

Halting Keystone in the vain hope that companies suddenly dust off blueprints for plants that require a massive capital investment (and don't always provide a commensurate return) is disingenuous. It's good politics, to be sure, so long as you don't dwell on the few hundred thousand workers needed to make the value-added vision a reality. Perhaps Mason could check Krypton. I understand the planet produces able-bodied workers.

Alberta Oil, Fri Sept 2 2011

Since October 2009 the Mexican Electrical Workers Union (SME) has been one of the primary targets of the Mexican government's attack on Freedom of Association. Most recently, the government has failed to take action to recognize the union's national officers who were elected in July. Instead, it issued arrest warrants against General Secretary Martin Esparza and another national leader, along with their legal counsel, based on charges regarding actions occurring two years earlier (the charges relate to an attempt by the SME to withdraw money from its own bank account as authorized by a judge after it had been frozen by government authorities).

Known for being a progressive, democratic union fairly representing its members, the SME is fighting for better conditions and salaries through collective bargaining and for a fairer society in general for all Mexicans. The SME has been a target for the Calderon government since 2009 when the President sent federal troops in to the electrical generating facilities (for Mexico City), shutting it down permanently, and illegally laying off 44,000 active and retired workers.

The SME has continued to function under difficult circumstances as a union in spite of the attempt to destroy it, and published a letter addressing the government in Mexico's daily newspaper 'La Jornada' to protest the constant attacks on the union. The letter outlined the fact that the government has dismissed 44,000 electrical workers, taken over their workplaces with military and police forces, seized the Union's bank accounts and jailed 13 workers. They call for an end to the criminalization of the SME and the release of the electrical workers being held as political prisoners, the withdrawal of the arrest warrants against the union's leaders, the return of the bank accounts, and the official recognition of the SME's elected leadership ("toma de nota") without further delay. The letter was signed by hundreds of individuals, organizations and activists from around the world who support the SME's struggle for labour rights in Mexico.

canadianlabour.ca, Wed Aug 31 2011

My husband and I have worked to raise our three children to the best of our ability. At times we have struggled to keep food on the table, clothes on their backs, and a roof over their heads.

But life has got significantly better for us in the past year. My husband does the same work, but now he's in a union. He gets paid what he's worth, our kids have dental benefits and our medicine is paid for. We are actually starting to get ahead and are enjoying our family.

I hear people talk about unions as though they are a bad thing. The Saskatchewan Party seems to hate unions.

I bet an MLA's wife doesn't have to worry about how the family will pay for the next trip to the dentist or about how to pay for medicine if a child gets sick.

How can a government claim to be for the people, but at the same time not want to see people earn a good wage so they can take care of their families and have a good life?

I just had to write this because I know how much my husband's union job has helped our family. Come November, I know how I'm voting.

Sharona Sendecki
Hafford

Regina StarPhoenix, Mon Aug 29 2011
Letter to the editor

The Alberta government is quietly consulting with employers and unions about major changes to the labour laws that cover the province's massive construction sector.

Employment and Immigration Minister Thomas Lukaszuk ordered the review last month in the wake of a report and intense lobbying by an industry coalition which believes the current labour relations code is making Alberta companies uncompetitive.

"I'm not convinced changes are needed at this time," said Lukaszuk, "but I'm open to being convinced by any or all stakeholders."

The coalition - representing companies which are not unionized or where workers are represented by the independent Christian Labour Association of Canada - wants amendments that would significantly impact the roughly 300,000 workers in the province's construction industry.

Its key recommendations include:

- Allowing companies to complete projects under the terms that existed prior to certification or organization by another union;

- Restricting unions from fining their members when they work for nonunion employers;

- Prohibiting unions from using dues for political activities without the prior consent of employees;

- Limiting the time that striking workers can delay people who cross their picket lines;

- Stopping building trades unions and their contractors from subsidizing bids on smaller projects with market enhancement recovery funds from bigger deals.

The Merit Contractors Association - which represents 1,300 companies and over 40,000 workers that are not unionized - believes the changes are needed to ensure investors in Alberta oilsands aren't scared away by uncertainty about construction costs escalating out of control.

"We are becoming known as a highcost jurisdiction," Merit president Steve Kushner said.

"The province had 12 upgrader projects on the books that are now not proceeding."

Roughly half of the major industrial and commercial projects in Alberta are currently completed by the 60,000 workers represented by the province's building trades unions.

Eighteen of those 24 trades recently signed four-year agreements that tie wages to the price of oil and the consumer price index. Industry watchers have said the deal offers stability for big projects on the books and will help avoid the bumpy labour conditions seen previously in Alberta's roller-coaster economy.

"We've come up with an enduring solution," said Neil Tidsbury, president of Construction Labour Relations Alberta, the industry body that negotiated the deal.

Tidsbury said the government's review is the result of attempts by non-union companies to better position themselves to undercut his members on projects.

"The report that prompted this is packaged in the guise of making Alberta more competitive," he said.

"They're really saying don't let us ever get organized by the building trades. If we do get organized, don't let it have any effect on us, and if we can destabilize the building trades' relationship with their contractors, all the better."

Officials with the building trades union declined to comment on the review, but Larry Prins, CLAC's regional director, said the coalition's proposed changes would allow industry-wide unions like his to better compete with the building trades in its attempts to represent workers.

Lukaszuk has asked two Edmonton lawyers - John Hope and Dwayne Chomyn - to conduct the review and provide him with a report by the end of October.

"My job is to ensure Alberta continues to shine and not be responsive to individual knee-jerk requests," said Lukaszuk, "but if I find there is a need and the parties agree on it, then you will see changes."

Calgary Herald, Fri Aug 26 2011
Byline: Matt McClure 

A review of the labour code launched by Alberta employment minister Thomas Lukaszuk is doomed to fail unless the process is changed, says the province’s largest labour group.

“The minister has reacted to a request from a rabidly anti-labour group by embarking on an invitation-only review being held behind closed doors,” says Nancy Furlong, secretary treasurer of the Alberta Federation of Labour (AFL), which represents 145,000 workers.

“The minister chose not to announce this review publicly, and only select groups have been invited to make submissions. He has appointed a review panel that does not include a single labour representative. Finally, the lobby group that instigated this review has made biased proposals aimed only at weakening unions,” she says.

“If you start with a biased proposition and appoint a panel that represents only one viewpoint, you are not going to get a balanced result. While this review is said to be aimed at the construction industry, any changes to the labour code will affect all working Albertans,” says Furlong.

She called on the minister to make the review process fully public, open and transparent, for submissions to be sought and accepted from all those wanting to participate and for the review panel to be widened to include labour.

“We are disappointed, once again, to find that the employment minister appears to be showing favouritism. The minister has a history of bowing to industry pressure. Earlier this year, he ignored an all-party committee’s recommendation on minimum wage and decided to impose a two-tier structure after intense lobbying efforts from the Canadian Restaurant and Foodservices Association. He also listened to the farm-industry lobby in ignoring a judge’s recommendation to extend Occupational Health and Safety laws to cover farm workers after the death of Kevan Chandler,” she says.

“In 2008, the Alberta government responded to pressure from the anti-union Merit Contractors Association by passing Bill 26, which put severe restrictions on the ability of unions to operate in the construction industry,” says Furlong.

“This new call for a review is simply an attempt to by the Merit Contractors and the Christian Labour Association of Canada to tilt the laws in their favour – and to lower the wages and working conditions of all Albertans,” she says. “We expect our government to take a balanced approach. It has a responsibility to represent all Albertans. The government needs to fix this process now.”

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MEDIA CONTACT:

Nancy Furlong, AFL Secretary Treasurer @ 780.720-8945 (cell) or 780.483-3021 (office)