ALF V1

The provincial government is giving $850,000 to agencies that provide services for temporary foreign workers as they adjust to life in Alberta.

Dennis Salvador arrived in Canada two years ago. He says he is trained in medical promotions in the Philippines, but now works at an Edmonton fast food outlet.

"Back home the salary wasn't competitive enough," he said.

He says he sends his earning back home to support his wife and two daughters. This man recalls that adjusting to life here was difficult at first.

"It's actually lonely because you're not with your family."

Alberta's minister of employment says it's important to recognize the contributions of temporary foreign workers to our economy.

"The fact of the matter is that we need a very targeted immigration program, which the temporary foreign worker program is. General immigration, opening up the borders for anyone who applies to come in does not address your labour problem because you need specific skill sets for specific locations, and for specific employers," said Thomas Lukaszuk.

Funding has been provided to immigrant-serving agencies in Edmonton, Fort McMurray, Red Deer, Calgary, Banff, Brooks and Lethbridge.

Edmonton will receive $250,000 in funding of the $850,000 being provided. Some of that cash will go toward programs at the Mennonite Centre for Newcomers.

Staff say every little bit helps.

"We need more staff, we need more resources, we need emergency supports," said Terry Andriuk.

Critics say the funding isn't enough to improve the program.

"Our expectation is a decent wage," said Nancy Furlong with Alberta's Federation of Labour.

Furlong says the program needs some big changes, and recommends scrapping it altogether and starting fresh.

"As long as you're bringing in lots of people who are willing to work for a lot less, that will have a lowering impact on the lower income wages," she said.

The minister says the province is launching a review of how the program affects communities. The plan is to meet with employers, civic leaders and foreign workers in the coming weeks.

Currently, more than 60,000 temporary foreign workers live and work in Alberta.

ctvedmonton.ca, Fri Sept 3 2010

Members of UFCW 1118 who work at Canada Malting in Calgary began strike action on August 24, after voting by 80% to reject the company's final offer.

A total of 67 workers are now walking the picket line at 3316 Bonnybrook Road S.E., Calgary, between 6 a.m. and midnight. They'd welcome support on the line from all in the labour movement, so please drop by when you can.

The major issue in the dispute is the company's insistence on moving from a defined benefits pension plan to a defined contributions plan.

For updates ...

After 66 days on the picket line, members of UFCW 401 at McKesson Canada are going back to work.

On Sept. 1, they voted 83 per cent in favour of a memorandum recommended by the union, that included significant pay raises and improvements in vision and dental care.

The strike by about 200 workers began in the final week of June to back up demands for wage fairness, benefit improvements, as well as issues of dignity and respect. Picket lines were set up at both McKesson warehouse locations, at 10931 - 177 Street and at 18503 - 107 Avenue.

UFCW 401 expressed their thanks to the AFL and others for support during the dispute.

EDMONTON - While the government has taken nearly a decade to finalize its website with workplace injury and fatality records, workers will have to wait even longer to get the full safety records they were promised.

"Workers are entitled to know the full safety records of employers, including their history of violations of the Occupational Health and Safety Code," says Nancy Furlong, Secretary Treasurer of the Alberta Federation of Labour (AFL), which represents 140,000 Albertans.

In 2002, the province promised to reveal Alberta's best and worst employers. What the watered-down website will provide is a long way from fulfilling that promise.

Lost-time claim statistics, by themselves, mean nothing, says Furlong. To encourage bad employers to improve their ways the province should post compliance orders, court orders, and other safety documentation.

Using the website to reveal if employers hold a Certificate of Recognition (COR) sounds good, but unless the problems with the program identified by the Auditor General are fully addressed, it is meaningless.

The Auditor General reported that half of the employers who had failed to comply with occupational health and safety orders continued to hold valid CORs, which helps them win contracts and qualifies them for reduced workers' compensation rates.

As well as lacking the courage to reveal the names of employers who violate the safety code, the government has taken no action to improve its dismal record of prosecuting those who break the law. Alberta currently prosecutes at much lower rates than other provinces, even in cases involving workplace fatalities. Since 2006, the province has prosecuted in less than three per cent of workplace fatalities.

"Employers must be made to pay the price for putting the workers' lives at risk, but this is still not being done," says Furlong. A plan for more aggressive prosecutions should be a core part of the minister's plan.

The AFL also believes that making Joint Worksite Health and Safety Committees (JWHSCs) a mandatory structure in the Occupational Health and Safety (OH&S) Act is vital to improving safety at worksites.

These committees provide an avenue for concerns, complaints and issues to be addressed. They help employers and workers talk about safety issues and find common ground. These roles are key to establishing a positive and effective health and safety environment in a workplace.

"The government still has an opportunity to take real action to save the lives of working Albertans and to prevent workplace injuries. It should do so," says Furlong.
-30-

Media Contact:
Nancy Furlong, Secretary Treasurer, Alberta Federation of Labour @ 780-720-8945 (cell)

Alberta workplace safety records will be made public as early as September, vows the province's employment minister.

Thomas Lukaszuk said the public database will contain the records of most employers insured by the Workers' Compensation Board - calling it a first in Canada.

"This database will have many possibilities," he said.

"By far, it is the most comprehensive set of (employer) information issued ever by any province."

The online safety records will include the number of lost-time claims, estimated number of employees, fatality numbers and other information for specific employers.

Lukaszuk said people will be able to search by employer or type of industry.

The information is expected to go online in September.

Nancy Furlong, with the Alberta Federation of Labour, said the online database falls short in a number of areas.

She said she was disappointed to learn the published information won't include Workplace Health and Safety violations and convictions.

NDP critic Rachel Notley said the province should also post injury rates for specific workplaces rather than the more general lost-time rates.

"It is still not giving us the information Albertans want to know," said Notley.

This is part of Lukaszuk's 10-point plan for improving workplace safety. Other components include hiring more Occupational Health and Safety officers and introducing a pilot project for weekend and evening worksite inspections, among other things.

Edmonton Sun, Tues Aug 31 2010
Byline: Frank Landry

Alberta could be facing an extended period of low natural gas prices that will have an adverse effect on the province's finances for the foreseeable future, Finance Minister Ted Morton said in releasing the treasury's fiscal first quarter update Wednesday.

Although natural gas royalties are expected to be about $82 million higher than budgeted, at $1.9 billion, the government lowered its forecast 2010 reference gas price by 50 cents to $3.75 per gigajoule as a result of growing supply and low demand. In a news conference with reporters, Morton acknowledged low prices could be a fixture of the economic landscape for the next three to five years.

"I think that's a real possibility," he said. "And that's not good news for Alberta - either the government or the oil and gas industry."

The Alberta reference price is the calculation the province uses to determine natural gas royalties and is a weighted average of major indicies that is typically lower than New York benchmarks accounting for factors like exchange rates and transportation costs to North American markets.

Henry Hub futures lost almost four per cent on the New York Mercantile Exchange Wednesday, closing at $3.87 US per million British thermal units, the lowest since March.

On the oil side, the province bumped its oil price forecast $2 to $80 US per barrel from a previous forecast of $78. A gain of $231 million in oilsands royalties were offset by a $214-million drop in conventional oil royalties.

From a peak of $8.2 billion in 2005-06, natural gas revenues have fallen about 75 per cent and are expected to bring in $1.9 billion in the current fiscal year. Synthetic oil and bitumen, or oilsands royalties, are expected to contribute $3.48 billion compared to $1.2 billion five years ago.

"It's bad news on natural gas," Morton said. "But (it's) offset by growing production of and royalties from, bitumen."

Higher land sale revenues were offset by higher drilling incentives and a stronger Canadian dollar, the province said in its fiscal documents. Sales of Crown leases are expected to bring in $1.8 billion - more than three times the $630 million budgeted at the start of the fiscal year.

The province has already taken in more than $1.5 billion from the twice-monthly auctions since January, including a pair of record breaking auctions in July that netted a combined $557.8 million.

Greg Stringham, the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers' vice-president, said the land sale results are a postive indicator that the province's royalty tweaks announced this spring have had the desired effect of increasing investment and activity in the oilpatch.

"To me that's a real strong vote of confidence that the government did the right thing with the competitiveness review. That has been helpful in getting the drilling going again this year and in years to come."

Morton said the higher land sale bonuses show Alberta is once again a competitive place for oil and companies to operate. But that competitiveness comes at a cost, with drilling stimulus expenses expected to reduce royalty revenue by $1.4 billion in the current fiscal year, more than double the $732 million originally forecast.

Morton described the holidays as "short-term pain for long-term gain" but the levels of the royalty relief rankled the Alberta Federation of Labour, which said the province has a "revenue problem" in its response to the budget update.

Nancy Furlong, the AFL's secretary treasurer, said the incentives create a "false economy" by increasing the government's reliance on the oil and gas sector to fund essential programs like health and education. Earlier this year, the AFL released a study that suggests every dollar in royalty holidays generates about one dollar in return, compared to six dollars for municipal works programs.

"They're (incentives) not necessary or wise," she said. "We tend to think the province relies too much on the oil and gas industry and needs to diversify."

Gary Leach, the executive director of the Small Explorers and Producers Association of Canada said higher land sales in particular point to the success companies are having revitalizing old oilfields with new technology, which will in turn lead to higher royalty revenues.

"In fact for the first time in many years it looks as though 2010 will see an increase in conventional oil production in Alberta as a result of this trend," he said.

Calgary Herald, Fri Aug 27, 2010
Byline: Shaun Polczer

Edmonton - The economic evidence is in and it shows overwhelmingly that Alberta's economy is still on shaky ground.

"Unstable commodity prices, a continuing jobs crisis, falling retail sales, increasing bankruptcies and more trouble in the U.S. paint a gloomy view of the stability of the provincial economy," says Nancy Furlong, Secretary Treasurer of the Alberta Federation of Labour, which represents 140,000 workers.

"As we look at the government's fiscal update, it's clear that a big part of the reason why this province's recovery is weaker than other Canadian jurisdictions is that the Stelmach government refused to engage in stimulus spending to help cope with the recession. And yet our government is calling for federal stimulus spending to end so private industry can take over the reins of recovery," says Furlong.

"We have seen in Alberta what leaving the recovery to private industry brings - it brings a longer recession, a bigger jobs crisis, more cuts to vital public services - and unnecessary pain to Alberta's most vulnerable families and communities."

In July 2010, Alberta shed 13,000 full-time jobs in just a month. All employment gains in our province were due to part-time job growth, where we added 22,000 positions. In the last two years, Alberta dropped 53,300 full-time jobs and added 50,600 part-time jobs.

The problems of the faltering economy have been greatly compounded in Alberta because of the government's revenue system, which relies too heavily on volatile commodity prices. Albertans found it hard to understand why we came off a long and pronounced economic boom, only to be immediately thrown into crisis when commodity prices dipped, says Furlong.

"The time has come for a grown-up conversation on how to reform our broken revenue system and come off the horrific rollercoaster ride to which we have been subjected by the government. For example, we will give away $2 billion in corporate taxes this year to the U.S. government from U.S. corporations operating in Alberta. We have the lowest income taxes for the very wealthy, but the highest taxes in Canada for the lowest-income workers," says Furlong.

"Alberta must reform its taxation system to stabilize revenue, and it must devote resources towards building a sustainable economy for the future of all Albertans," she says.

See detailed fiscal update from the AFL.
- 30 -

Media Contact: Nancy Furlong, Secretary Treasurer, Alberta Federation of Labour @ 780-720-8945

The Alberta Federation of Labour is commending Alberta's labour minister for suspending two immigration programs it says were being used inappropriately to fill job gaps.

Alberta Employment and Immigration Minister Thomas Lukaszuk announced Monday the Immigrant Nominee Program will not accept any new applications in its family stream and the U.S. visa holder category. The suspension is being called temporary until further notice.

"We are entirely behind him. We think that's the right thing to do," said Nancy Furlong, AFL secretary-treasurer.

The INP was introduced to help augment the Alberta workforce with skilled immigrants. In 2008, the family stream and the U.S. visa holder category were added, both resulting in a large number of applications.

Lukaszuk cited the current job market conditions as the impetus for the suspension, and a

preference to keep Albertans employed as opposed to

unemployed outsiders looking for jobs.

The suspension impacts temporary foreign workers, a number of which can be found in Fort McMurray including the oilsands, but Lukaszuk called it a positive impact.

Though the temporary foreign worker program is a federal initiative, he explained the province manages the INP and has a "solid cap" on how many individuals Alberta is allowed to nominate and keep.

Lukaszuk said he has just renegotiated that cap, increasing that number from 4,200 to 5,000. As a result, of those temporary foreign workers who want to stay and whom employers need to keep and have satisfied the federal requirements, "we get to keep 5,000 per year."

Until the suspension, which came into immediate effect, that number was "eaten up" by individuals entering Canada under the family stream and the U.S. visa holder stream who were not necessarily connected to any employment in Alberta.

The U.S. visa holders are people who entered the United States as temporary foreign workers but when the economy tanked in the U.S., they didn't want to go back to where they came from, he explained, so they were applying to enter Canada to look for work here.

"The odds of finding a job in Canada are still better than they are in the United States. Again, it's unemployed individuals; it's not Americans. By and large ... they're not from North America."

Under the family stream, it's bringing in family members such as a niece from another part of the world who have certain education and experience in a particular profession.

"The problem is that you do not have to have employment waiting for her so when she arrives, then she looks for work like you and I. So again, unattached to employers."

These people from both categories would simply arrive and then start looking for a job, competing with currently unemployed Albertans also looking for work, said Lukaszuk.

"Obviously my prerogative is to make sure that any and all jobs are first considered by Albertans and given to Albertans. Having external competition of unemployed people arriving here and competing with Albertans for jobs is simply wrong."

Under the INP program for 2009, a total of 4,216 certificates were issued. Out of that number, 450 were issued under the family stream category while 943 were issued under the U.S. visa holder category. The majority - 2,426 - were issued in the employment driven-stream to employer-nominated people.

With the suspension, that means those 5,000 spots are available for temporary foreign

workers already attached to an employer and are not competing with Albertans looking for a

job because they're already employed.

"We have always held the view that the temporary foreign worker program is being used inappropriately, that it's the wrong route," said Furlong. She pointed out the program was originally intended for a very small, boutique group of people where the skill level might equal 100 of them in the world.

"It worked fine for that and students, and it was only the advent of the huge boom that people started to abuse it."

Closing the door to unemployed people through the two categories is welcome news in opening the "premium" spots for TFWs already employed who want to stay in the country, she added.

Lukaszuk admitted there is a misconception out there that the TFWs are taking work from unemployed Albertans but that's not the case. In order for an employer to hire a TFW, the employer has to prove there is a need. The employers has to satisfy the federal government that the job was made available to local Albertans at the same rate of pay and employment conditions, and was to be advertised not only within Alberta, but coast to coast.

When that employer doesn't get qualified applications for that particular position, then the federal government will issue the employer a labour market opinion to hire a temporary foreign worker because there are no Canadians interested in that job.

There is a chance the programs will not be returned, but he noted that decision will be largely driven by Alberta's economy.

"My personal commitment is to Albertans. I was elected by Albertans and it would be unconscionable of me as Minister of Labour to have Albertans unemployed, collecting EI or social services while I'm letting in unemployed foreign workers coming here to look for work. I simply cannot allow (that) to happen so as soon as I could I quickly stopped that."

He said his policy, and that of the Alberta government is overall, Canadian immigration policies and laws should be primarily based on what is good for Canadians first.

"That should be our first consideration and all others should be secondary.

What's good for Alberta right now, he added, is not to have unemployed outsiders competing with unemployed Albertans, and to only bring in individuals for jobs that cannot be filled by Albertans and are instantly attached to employment.

"My ideal immigrant is a person who arrives on Saturday and goes to work on Monday."

Alberta will continue to accept immigration applications from skilled workers, semi-skilled workers in certain occupations, international students, compulsory trades, engineering occupations, and self-employed farmers.

Fort McMurray Today, Tues Aug 24 2010
Byline: Carol Christian

Faced with a drop in demand for labour in the province, the Alberta government has suspended a pair of programs meant to fast-track immigration applications for foreign workers.

The province suspended two of the five streams of the Alberta Immigration Nominee Program (AINP), which last year recommended 4,216 applicants be granted permanent residency by the federal government. The two streams suspended Monday - one for family of workers living here and the other for those holding U.S. visas - accounted for 33 per cent of that total. Applications received before Monday will still be eligible.

The AINP program was introduced in 2008, and the government cited a slowing economy in its decision to temporarily cut off the two streams.
"The economy is not what it was," Alberta Employment and Immigration spokeswoman Sonia Sinha said, stressing the move is temporary and could be reversed. "The focus is on Albertans and Canadians, and jobs for them first."

Liberal immigration critic Hugh MacDonald said if the government wanted to preserve local job opportunities, it would stop accepting workers under the federal Temporary Foreign Worker program.
Effectively, the government's move Monday may open up more spots for such temporary workers, already in the province, to apply for and receive residency.

"I'm very glad to see the change," said Yessy Byl, a temporary foreign worker advocate with the Alberta Federation of Labour. "What the government, I understand, is doing is concentrating on sponsoring nominees who are already here working, and that is the critical area."
As of last December, Alberta had about 65,000 foreign workers, more than half of them so-called "low-skilled" employees who work in meat-packing and manufacturing jobs. In recent years, those workers have had a difficult time obtaining permanent residency, since the province can only nominate up to 5,000 per year, and many of those spots went to skilled labourers.

But with the downturn in the economy, the cuts to ANIP make sense, said Peter Veress, the president of foreign-worker specialist company Vermax Group Inc.

"This was a program designed for meeting a certain labour shortage," he said. "We don't need that program any more."

CTV News, Mon Aug 23 2010
Josh Wingrove and Nathan VanderKlippe

After nearly eight weeks walking the line, strikers remain as strong as ever at McKesson Canada facilities in Edmonton. Now it's time to show them the strength of your support!

A picket line BBQ and rally will be held at the main warehouse at 10931 - 177 Street, starting at 4:30 p.m. on Wednesday, August 25. It's being organized by the Alberta Federation of Labour and the Edmonton and District Labour Council.

UFCW Local 401 - www.gounion.ca - members have been on strike since the final week of June to back up their demands for wage fairness, benefit improvements, as well as issues of dignity and respect. About 200 workers have been without a contract since the beginning of 2009.

McKesson Canada has warehouses across Canada. The Edmonton warehouse workers have by far the lowest wage rates compared with counterparts in Vancouver (Coquitlam), Calgary and Regina.

Join the AFL and EDLC in showing the strikers that we support their fight for fairness, dignity and respect. There's no better way to spend an August evening in Edmonton!

For latest bargaining updates, go to www.gounion.ca.