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Organized labour is accusing the Harper government of "Americanizing" collective bargaining.

The accusation came Tuesday during a noon hour rally outside Canada Post's downtown plant in Edmonton. It saw a couple hundred people from across the union spectrum support locked out postal workers. The unions are upset at what they describe as "heavy-handedness" in negotiations.

What's got them going is the government's back-to-work legislation which imposes lower wages than Canada Post's last offer when the rotating strikes began.

"The arbitrator that's going to be appointed is going to be looking at the final offer of Canada Post, the final offer of the union (and) he or she will pick one, and that's what's going to make up the collective agreement for the next four years," said Bev Ray, the Edmonton local president for the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW), whose members have been locked out since last Thursday.

Gil McGowan with the Alberta Federation of Labour (AFL) says, to have a wage roll back in legislation language is unprecedented.

"In this case, the government, I would argue," he said, "this is an American style approach."

Ray says, with the legislation now tabled for a couple of days, the hope is in the interim, talks will resume.

Labour Minister Lisa Raitt says the settlement is in line with other federal unions.

iNews880am, Tues Jun 21 2011

NDP labour critic Yvon Godin is not alone in his assessment of a bleak future for unionized workers.

"This is only the beginning — no matter what," the New Brunswick MP, former miner and Steelworkers' negotiator told the Toronto Star. He was referring to labour disputes with Air Canada and Canada Post that have involved Parliament in the early days of the Conservatives' first majority mandate.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper "has made it clear he's only here for the big employers," Godin said from Ottawa before leaving for this weekend's NDP national convention in Vancouver. "It's a message to all workers that they don't matter anymore . . . Do we really want a return to the Dirty Thirties (and a Depression)?"

The result, he argues, will be an unsettling future of labour unrest.

The Conservative government acted swiftly in both disputes. After Canada Post locked out postal workers involved in rotating strikes on June 15, Labour Minister Lisa Raitt announced back-to-work legislation within hours. It will be tabled in the Commons Monday.

The government planned similar legislation for striking Air Canada customer service and sales staff. However, the issue became moot when the company and the Canadian Auto Workers' union reached a settlement — with talks continuing on the dispute over pensions.

Union members and labour analysts fear this government has tougher measures in store, including concern about the Conservative party's recent resolution calling for better protection for replacement workers. As well, they point out a potential for "poison pills" hidden in back-to-work legislation for postal workers, such as the worst-case scenario of curtailment of the right to strike for the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW).

Liberal Leader Bob Rae said his party will study the legislation carefully when it is introduced Monday. He says Harper's "authoritarian, command-and-control approach clearly puts the government on one side in labour disputes — management's side. It's going to make future bargaining more difficult."

In the Commons, Harper said government actions are necessary to prevent "significant damage to the Canadian economy. The government has not taken a stand on the issues."

Carla Lipsig-Mummé, founding director of the Centre for Research on Work and Society at York University, says she's concerned about the potential for further federal legislation that restricts workers' rights.

"I worry considerably because the government has shown itself to be so hostile to unions . . . It indicates this government is ready to go to lengths we have never seen in Canada to essentially threaten unions.

"It's a green light to companies — 'You can behave as badly as you want and we will support you.'"

An internationally recognized expert on workplace issues, Lipsig-Mummé said she saw no reason to legislate against postal workers when its union offered to accept the existing contract and continue negotiations in order to keep the mail moving. She called the government's actions "unconscionable and unwise."

CUPW president Denis Lemelin said the message in rotating strikes, including to small businesses, was that "we'll keep the mail moving. There will be delays but you will receive your mail."

Lemelin said in an interview the union is fighting Canada Post's efforts to treat new hires differently, both in wages, pension and other benefits. "What kind of society do we want to create? One in which there are still good jobs or one in which we try to create cheap labour at any cost?"

The June 15 lockout of postal workers happened so rapidly, some CUPW insiders suggest Canada Post laid a trap for the union.

"That's absolutely untrue," said Jon Hamilton, general manager for communications at Canada Post. "If you look at what has been happening in the rotating strikes, the revenue loss to Canada Post has been $100 million . . . We could not continue to live with that kind of national uncertainty."

Lipsig-Mummé doesn't buy the argument the Canadian public, hit by job losses, layoffs and reduced wages and benefits, has little sympathy for labour disputes.

"There is a fairly ingrained sense of fairness among Canadians," she said. "(The government's actions) are not the way we work in Canada . . . Here is a government that wishes to signal it will be tough on unions that undercut the Canadian economy but in neither case (Air Canada and Canada Post) can they show real damage to the economy."

Toronto Star, Fri Jun 17 2011
Byline: Linda Diebel

The newly seated Chicago Board of Education may have won the first battle with Chicago teachers this week when it rescinded a 4 percent pay raise, but it may also have ended a relatively peaceful era in labor relations and created a more pugnacious adversary.

The Chicago Teachers Union has absorbed a number of recent setbacks. On Monday, a sweeping education bill that reformed teacher tenure and limited teachers' ability to strike was signed into law. And on Wednesday, the board unanimously nullified raises that would have cost nearly $100 million.

Some teachers and observers say that backing the union into a corner on wages and other key issues could be the spark to reinvigorate the membership.

"If you act in a confrontational way, you're poking your finger in the eye of those teachers, and very typically you generate unintended negative consequences," said Robert Bruno, director of the labor education program at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Karen Lewis, president of the union, had a succinct reaction to the board's vote. "Thank you, because we'll be organizing all summer," she said Thursday. "It will be a very interesting, wonderful summer."

Teachers face crucial tasks. They need to rally their membership and public support to strengthen their leverage at the bargaining table. And they must decide whether to try to muster the votes to call the union's first strike since 1987 or choose a less confrontational tactic.

The union has already notified the board that it wants to reopen the section of the contract regarding salaries, something it has the right to do. That could lead to compromise solutions or to reopening the entire agreement for negotiations.

Andrew W. Broy, president of the Illinois Network of Charter Schools, recognized the role that the new legislation could play in the changing dynamic between the district and the union.

"It's unusual to carve out a group of teachers in a local and treat them, in state statute, very differently in terms of right to strike," Broy said. "You've got the kind of nuclear option of the strike, but what's short of that, I think, is the question."

The board's vote on raises came after it revealed that the CPS budget deficit — which it said is now $712 million — includes millions of dollars in previously undisclosed costs. Some teachers say they are open to cost-saving alternatives, like furlough days.

If the board and union reopen negotiations and those talks stall, the new state legislation dictates that the two enter a fact-finding process with a third-party arbitrator. Then 75 percent of the voting union membership would be required to authorize a strike. Many teachers say that threshold is attainable.

"We think there could be a possible strike," said Anna Moraitis, a 16-year veteran teacher who works at Sullivan High School. "At some point, enough is enough. We gotta draw the line somewhere. We feel like there's no stability anymore. If you can't honor a contract and an agreement, what leverage are you going to have in the future?"

The Chicago Teachers Union has long been a powerful and combative institution, with strikes virtually a perennial threat. There were five teachers' strikes in the 1980s alone. But there has been relative labor peace since Richard M. Daley, then the mayor, took control of the schools in 1995. The rescinded raises were specified for the last year of the current five-year contract.

"The union is weak, and it used to be strong," said Sherrily Bivens, a teacher for 27 years, currently at Agassiz Elementary School. "People paid us attention. It's a joke now."

"We have to come out and show that we're a viable institution," Bivens added.

The union cannot strike over some issues, but it can over wages. Asked if a strike is possible, Lewis said: "Yes, yes and yes again. This action that the board took, and quite frankly I'm surprised that they took it, could easily be a catalyst for a strike."

Bruno said the best alternative to a strike would be a strategic, methodical campaign to create a counternarrative to the board's stance. "The challenge will be for the teachers to talk more broadly so that it's not merely a conversation about 4 percent," he said.

Chicago Public Schools "could be creating the seeds for a much better informed and much better prepared bargaining agent than the city's ever experienced," he said. The new union leadership, which took over last year, is much more active than past leaders in organizing and building relationships with parents and community organizations, he added. That could help move public opinion in their favor.

Over the past two months, CPS has developed a public relations campaign, rolling out a listening tour with its new chief executive, Jean-Claude Brizard, announcing $75 million in cuts for the central office and outlining a deep budget deficit. Public officials across the country have called for wage and work force cuts and even changes in collective bargaining rights to address budget problems.

"People can argue with details about the numbers, but clearly, at this juncture of our budgetary cycle, we are facing an extraordinary budget gap," said David Vitale, president of the Board of Education. "We can't hamstring ourselves by saying we can reasonably expect to pay you those raises."

Lewis doesn't accept that message. "Paying teacher salaries did not take us to financial Armageddon," she said.

Nationally, teachers have been made scapegoats, said Randall Bates, a retired teacher. Teachers need a new strategy to re-establish themselves as professionals, he said, rather than just accepting the definition of a management-worker relationship.

"We have to regain the trust of the public; the public employs us," said Bates, who worked in city schools for 30 years. "We should go forward to earn that trust. We have to become leaders of educational reforms."

Lori Zaimi, 33, a union member and the coordinator of technology services at Murray Elementary School in Hyde Park, said the union had been ramping up efforts to galvanize teachers and make them aware of potential threats to their contract.

Others, like Nancy Besser, a teacher at Monroe Elementary in the Logan Square neighborhood, said there was little time to talk about union issues because she had to remain focused on her work, educating children.

"To tell you the truth, all the teachers here are just busy with what we have to do," Besser said before the vote. "The job is very demanding, and the last thing we're doing is sitting around talking about what's going to happen to our raises."

But Mark Paye, an English teacher and union delegate at Roberto Clemente high school, said that attaining a 75 percent strike-authorization vote would not be difficult given the impact the rescinded raises could have on people's lives.

"Unfortunately, people sometimes don't step into action or get active until they feel it in their pocketbooks," Paye said. "I think this would fire people up more."

Paye said he welcomed the test faced by the Chicago Teachers Union and by public employees nationwide.

"I think we're going to have a wake-up call," he said. "I think people in the country do look toward Chicago, and they're going to be looking here to learn from our successes and our mistakes."

Chicago News Cooperative, Fri Jun 17 2011

Alberta workers seriously injured on the job in the past two years stayed home longer afterwards due to a soft economy with fewer opportunities for "modified work," the Workers' Compensation Board said Thursday.

"Opportunities present themselves when the economy is good. When it is not, we need to find them," said Guy Kerr, president and CEO of Alberta's WCB, speaking at the board's annual general meeting in Calgary on Thursday.

The modified work program allows employees to return to the workplace and take on a less-rigorous task even while they recover from an on-the-job injury. The WCB says modified work boosts morale, while also decreasing a worker's time off and reducing the costs associated with each claim.

According to the WCB's 2010 annual report, the drop in modified work started in 2009 and continued into last year.

The WCB measured this by the increase in the average time it takes for an injured worker to return to a job.

For employees injured seriously enough to have to take time off work, the average number of days absent was 32.1 in 2008. By 2010, that number had jumped to 36.1.

Overall, Kerr characterized the board as functioning smoothly.

He said the province has a "stable, affordable and effective" workers' compensation system, and client surveys show that 85 per cent of employers and more than 78 per cent of workers are satisfied with WCB services.

However, a number of workers and their advocates at the meeting expressed concern about the modified work program, and listed a number of other WCB grievances.

Gil McGowan, president of the Alberta Federation of Labour, held a press conference prior to the meeting to highlight the role the board played in the illegal release of one worker's medical information -as ruled on by Alberta's privacy commissioner this week. "This kind of slapdash approach to medical privacy is simply not acceptable," said McGowan.

McGowan also said the WCB sometimes pushes workers back to work too quickly, before they're ready -largely through the modified work program.

"We think this is an organization that puts a priority on reducing premiums for employers," McGowan said.

Richard Truscott, Alberta director of the Canadian Federation for Independent Business, said he wishes there was time allowed for more than just a few questions during the meeting. For instance, he wanted to ask about increasing average insurance rates paid by employers.

"Maybe they need to have an annual general meeting, but also have a series of stakeholder meetings."

Truscott added it's likely opportunities for modified work will improve this year and next as the province's economy revs up.

Although the Alberta WCB is a government-created entity, it is not a provincial department or crown corporation, but an employer-funded insurance body.

The board is meant to provide workers or their families with predictable, dependable benefits in the event of injury or death.

The trade-off is in most cases workers are unable to sue their employers.

Calgary mechanic Peter Harvey, also at the meeting, said he was injured while working on a truck in November 2005. "I wrenched my shoulder," Harvey said.

He wanted to talk to the board Thursday about his case because he believes he hasn't been treated fairly, and the WCB hasn't recognized that he will never be able to do physical work again. Harvey is still getting some benefits, but said he is now "close to bankruptcy."

He has now hired a consultant to help him.

"It is life, but what workers comp does is makes it worse," Harvey said.

Calgary Herald, Fri Jun 17 2011
Byline: Kelly Cryderman

Canada Post's decision to lock out its unionized workers Tuesday night was more of a shock to local union president Doris Salmaso, than was Wednesday's announcement by the federal government that it plans to introduce back-to-work legislation.

Salmaso, who represents some 100 Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) in the Medicine Hat-Brooks area, said Wednesday that her national union had already talked about the possibility of the federal government intervening to end the labour dispute with Canada Post.

"I was surprised at the lockout announced Tuesday night," she told the News in an interview Wednesday. "I thought they'd (Canada Post) at least let us deliver the stacks of mail that were packed up inside our processing building."

According to Salmaso, there was a lot more mail stacked up here and elsewhere in the country than what Canada Post has been admitting too.

With the lockout, Salmaso — along with her fellow union workers — are now only getting a cheque for $175 a week from CUPW. All benefits, as well, as far as she's been informed, along with their regular pay from Canada Post, have been terminated.

It also means that depending on the length of the present lockout and what legislation the federal government brings in to force both party's to negotiate in good faith, many union members may have to refinance their mortgages, and find alternate arrangements to pay a wide-range of things from food to medications, she added.

On Wednesday, union workers spent the day picketing outside the Canada Post Medicine Hat Processing Centre on Kipling Street, and at the company's Canada Post Office on First Street SE.

The present strike by CUPW is the first in 14 years.

Among a number of things on the table are that union negotiators have asked for a wage bump of 3.2 per cent in the first year, followed by 2.75 per cent in the subsequent years of a four-year contract.

Canada Post has offered a 1.9 per cent increase a year, with wages starting at $18 an hour for new employees and increases capped at $26 for new and existing employees.

Employees also receive a benefit pension plan and up to seven weeks vacation.

Negotiations have been going on for seven months.

As postal workers walked their picket lines Wednesday, the Alberta Federation of Labour (AFL) threw its weight behind them.

"The Canadian Union of Postal Workers has made great proposals to take Canada Post profits and invest them in better service, but these have been rejected by the employer," said AFL president Gil McGowan.

"CUPW has also proposed ways to increase profits, such as offering banking services like many post offices in countries around the world, but these ideas have also been dismissed."

The City of Medicine Hat Wednesday announced that it had made a number of arrangements to ensure continued customer service and business operations during the current disruption in postal service.

Medicine Hat News, Thurs Jun 16 2011

News of criminal charges being laid in relation to welders and machinists from Poland and Ukraine working in Alberta is more evidence of widespread violation of employment laws and the abuse of foreign workers, says the province's largest labour group.

"It has been clear for some time that the processes used to bring foreign workers to Alberta aren't working," says Gil McGowan, president of the Alberta Federation of Labour, which represents 145,000 workers. "Foreign workers are vulnerable because they fear deportation and are not always aware of their rights. The Alberta government must not stand idly by while workers are being abused, and while laws are being violated."

Charges laid by the RCMP today allege that foreign workers were told they faced fines of $25,000 and deportation if they breached their contracts, and that up to nine workers had to share three-bedroom apartments. They were allegedly told they could work legally after six months and bring their families to Canada.

The workers were also allegedly contracted out to several northern Alberta businesses which were charged a much higher hourly rate for the services of each foreign worker than was paid to the workers. It is alleged that the recruiters profited by more than $1,000,000 from April 2006 to September 2006 by sub-contracting the foreign workers to various companies.

Last year, the NDP revealed government documents that showed 74 per cent of Alberta businesses hiring temporary foreign workers that were subject to inspection had violated the labour code.

"The brokers who bring in foreign workers must be subject to far more monitoring and inspection by the Employment and Immigration ministry. There must also be a much greater willingness to prosecute brokers and employers who violate the province's labour code. Sadly, there are very few prosecutions because, it seems, this government lacks the will power to take action against violators," says McGowan.

"The TFW program in particular is rife with abuse. Workers are charged thousands of dollars in illegal fees, often live in homes owned by employers or agencies who charge outrageous rents, are told to work long hours while being denied fair rates of pay - but are afraid to complain because their employer can lay them off and have them deported."

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CONTACT: Gil McGowan, AFL president, is in Calgary and will be available for interviews until 3 p.m. He can be reached at780-218-9888.

The Alberta Workers' Compensation Board is failing in its duty towards injured employees and only a full investigation and overhaul can fix the problems, says the Alberta Federation of Labour (AFL).

"A ruling this week by the privacy commissioner that the personal medical information of a claimant was illegally released underscores bigger problems at the WCB," says Gil McGowan, president of the AFL, which represents 145,000 workers.

"Today, as the WCB holds its annual meeting, I am calling on Employment and Immigration Minister Thomas Lukaszuk to launch a probe into the way the WCB operates, the way it handles privacy issues and the way it treats injured workers," says McGowan.

Gail Cumming, an Edmonton WCB expert and CEO with Cumming Consulting, says the Alberta WCB has a history of complaints about personal and medical privacy being violated, created by a lack of leadership and staff resources.

"The root of the problem is the WCB's focus on rushing injured workers back to the workplace, in order to keep employer premiums down, rather than on caring for people who have been hurt," says Cumming.

McGowan says there must be serious consequences to the illegal privacy violation.

"This matter must not be swept under the rug, or shelved and forgotten. If a doctor or a nurse illegally released patient information, they would face serious consequences from their professional organizations," says McGowan.

"For a long time, the WCB has been putting the needs of employers, and the desire to hide Alberta's true workplace safety records, ahead of the interests of injured workers. This ruling by the privacy commissioner gives Lukaszuk the perfect opportunity to fix things," says McGowan.

"Responding to a question on the WCB, the minister recently told the Alberta Legislature: 'We have the ability to respond to issues as they arise.' Well, the privacy commissioner has clearly pointed out an issue that has arisen. The minister must respond now, or explain why he won't."

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

Calgary postal workers are hoping the union and Canada Post can iron out a collective agreement before being forced to return to the job by looming back-to-work legislation.

"We are not thrilled. We are better off if we can negotiate our own collective agreement, but once this starts, our hands are pretty close to being tied," said Anna Beale, CUPW Calgary local president, as she gathered Wednesday outside the city's main depot with dozens of other workers holding "Locked Out" signs.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Labour Minister Lisa Raitt announced in the House of Commons on Wednesday that the government was tabling back-towork-legislation to end the labour dispute at Canada Post, arguing that the action is needed to protect Canadians and the economy.

This came a day after Canada Post halted operations nationwide and locked out nearly 50,000 workers, and a day after Ottawa announced it would be ending another national strike involving Air Canada employees with back-to-work legislation.

Normally, when legislative notice is given, the government cannot introduce the bill for 48 hours.

Beale questioned what spurred the government to suddenly take action on the Canada Post dispute two weeks after the rotating strikes started.

"(Tuesday), we were a blip on their radar and (Wednesday), it's practically a national emergency."

Gil McGowan, president of the Alberta Federation of Labour, which represents 145,000 workers, criticized the government's actions in both national strikes.

"Using back-to-work legislation removes the incentive for the employer to come to the table and negotiate. With the hands of the workers tied, the employer can impose an unjust and unpopular deal that fails to address the issues that led to the dispute," McGowan said in a news release.

Meanwhile, Canada Post spent the day sealing street letterboxes as part of the lockout, said company spokesman Jon Hamilton.

Hamilton said Canada Post was forced to cease operations after seeing losses of close to $100 million since the rotating strikes began.

He said the lockout was also initiated because there was some "heightened activity" hampering the ability for both employees and customers to get safely in and out of postal buildings.

In addition, Hamilton said there has been no movement at the negotiating table.

Corporate post offices have closed. Rural and franchise offices will remain open to process mail orders and ID verification, but no mail will be "inducted," or put through the system, he said.

Any mail already in the system will be inventoried, secured and prepared for when mail operations resume, Hamilton said.

If anyone tries to mail letters in the Calgary today, those items could be "stranded," Hamilton warned.

Rural carriers, who are part of a different bargaining unit, can continue delivering mail that has been sorted for the next few days, as long as they can move safely in out and out of post office buildings, Hamilton said.

Socio-economic cheques will also be delivered through regular mail by volunteer letter carriers Monday, Hamilton said.

He said he doesn't know how much mail is stuck in the system as millions of pieces of mail are normally processed in Canada on a daily basis.

Beale estimated that about 300 monotainers -large steel bins measuring about 1.2 metres in length, width and height -containing magazines and ad mail, as well as heaps of mail near the letter carrier cases, are piling up at Calgary's main plant.

In response to the postal disruption, Service Canada issued a news release encouraging clients who receive employment insurance benefits by mail to sign up for direct deposit payment or to arrange to pick up their benefit payments from a distribution centre.

Service Alberta suggested the same thing with clients collecting provincial cheques, and also initiated its emergency mail plan starting today to ensure "critical mail" can continue to flow between Albertans and provincial departments.

Calgarians can drop off essential correspondence addressed to provincial departments at Monarch Messenger Services, 4710 78th Ave. S.E., on weekdays between 8: 15 a.m. and 4: 30 p.m. No stamps are required, but the sender and recipient's full addresses should be clearly marked.

Albertans expecting essential mail from the province will be contacted with a pickup date and location.

The union is asking for a four-year contract with a wage increase of 3.3 per cent in the first year followed by 2.75 per cent in the subsequent years. It also wants a short-term disability plan instead of banking sick days.

The company has proposed a 1.9 per cent wage increase per year, with wages starting at $19 an hour and capping at $26, as well as a benefit pension plan and up to seven weeks' vacation.

Calgary Herald, Thurs Jun 16 2011
Byline: Clara Ho

Fluctuating revenues lead to cuts when oil prices decline

In industries such as oil and gas, revenues can fluctuate, sometimes wildly, with the ebbs and flows of the market.

For a province such as Alberta, whose revenue is heavily based on the oil and gas industry, such fluctuations are a major problem because the need for that money doesn't fluctuate. The need to fund areas such as health care and education is constant.

It's for that reason that Public Interest Alberta is campaigning to push the province to fix a revenue system it says is broken.

The organization is touring the province, holding town hall meetings - including one in Lethbridge tonight at 7 p.m. at Southminster United Church - to let Albertans know the province does have options for generating revenue that could eliminate the need for cuts.

Public Interest Alberta points out the province still has about $10 billion in rainy-day savings in the Heritage Trust Fund. The organization also says Alberta - the only province still using a flat tax - would be better served by switching to a progressive tax system which could generate up to extra $2 billion in revenue.

Alberta also overspent by $900 million on its energy stimulus drilling program which provides subsidies for the oil and gas industry.

The extra money in government coffers would come in handy now with school districts facing the prospect of budget shortfalls for next term.

"It's obviously well know that there's $100 million that's been cut out of the education budget even though they're looking at an additional 6,000 children from K to 12 going into our system next year," says Bill Moore-Kilgannon, executive director of Public Interest Alberta, which is helping to spearhead the "Join Together Alberta" campaign which demands Alberta change to a more consistent revenue model.

Moore-Kilgannon notes post-secondary institutions are also facing tough times because the zero per cent increase in their operating budgets the past two years effectively amounts to a cut because operating costs have risen.

He's right when he says the need for health care, education and care for seniors doesn't rise and fall with the price of oil, and that cuts made today ultimately wind up producing greater costs down the road. That doesn't include the social costs in terms of hardship for Albertans who rely on these services.

There's no need for Albertans to have to endure such hardship. We are fortunate to live in one of the "have" provinces; maintaining services essential to Albertans shouldn't be as difficult as it has become.

"Alberta is one of the wealthiest places in the world, blessed with an abundance of extremely valuable natural resources - and yet our government has manufactured a financial crisis that is likely to see 1,200 teachers laid off in the next few months and a still to be determined number of vital educational support staff," Gil McGowan, president of the Alberta Federation of Labour and co-chair of the JTA campaign, said in a news release at the campaign's launch. "Our education system is experiencing the same kind of chaos that has been inflicted on our health-care system, and that pain is also being felt in post-secondary education and in social services struggling to help vulnerable Albertans."

A more sustainable revenue system could ease that pain.

Lethbridge Herald, Thurs Jun 16 2011

The AFL-CIO today applauded the U.S. Department of Labor's decision to accept its complaint regarding the government of Bahrain's failure to live up to its trade agreement commitments with respect to workers' rights.

The complaint, filed April 21 with the Office of Trade and Labor Affairs, documents the Bahrain government's repression of peaceful protests and attacks on the General Federation of Bahraini Trade Unions (GFBTU). Click here to read the complaint.

For two months, the union movement around the world and in the United States has called on the government of Bahrain to halt its all-out attack against workers. In retaliation for peaceful protests and as part of the Bahraini government's overall crack down on dissent, more than 1,700 workers have been summarily dismissed from their jobs, frequently in contravention of Bahrain's labor laws.

"The egregious attacks on workers must end, and the Bahraini government's systematic discrimination against and dismantling of unions must be reversed. These actions directly violate the letter and the spirit of the trade agreement," AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said in a statement.

Workers must be reinstated to their jobs and the elected union leadership must be allowed to function without fear of reprisals. Failure by the United States to intervene to support workers and their democratic institutions would make a mockery of the labor protections included in the free trade agreement.

AFL-CIO Now Blog, Thurs Jun 16 2011