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Welcome to our new website

• The Alberta Federation of Labour has a new website and is now on Facebook and Twitter. We'd really like you check out the site (let us know what you think) and we believe you'll find it worthwhile becoming Fans of our Facebook Page and becoming Followers on Twitter. You can do all that by following the links below.

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Alberta sheds 13,000 full-time jobs in July

• Premier Stelmach recently called on the federal government to end stimulus spending and let the private sector lead us to economic recovery, but the facts show his ideas are irresponsible. Alberta lost 13,000 full-time jobs last month, proving that the recovery is still fragile and that a reduction in government spending could cause a double-dip recession. Read more ...

Workers still at risk, thanks to watered-down government plan

• The Alberta government had a chance to take concrete action to save the lives of working Albertans by using a website to publish the names of employers who violate the Occupational Health and Safety (OH&S) Code - but it appears to have bowed to industry pressure by announcing a watered-down plan. For more information ...

Government set to ignore judge's recommendations on farm workers

• Reports that the Alberta government will not include farm workers in health, safety and employment standards legislation, despite a recommendation to do so by a provincial judge in 2008, could lead to a constitutional challenge. Meanwhile, the government continues to allow unsafe and potentially exploitative working environments to continue. Read more ...

Urgent Action

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Sign up for Next Up!

• Applications are now being accepted for the second year of Next Up Alberta: A Leadership Program for Young People Committed to Social and Environmental Justice. This is an amazing, intensive and transformative program for young social-change activists between the ages of 18 and 32. Read more ...

Events

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• August 22, 2010 - Farm Workers' Day, 12:00 noon to 5:00 p.m., Turner Valley
• August 29, 2010 - Big Splash Open Golf Tournament, 8:00 a.m., Raven Crest Golf Course
• September 5, 2010 - Calgary Pride Parade, 8th Avenue and 8th Street SW, Calgary
• September 6, 2010 - EDLC Annual Labour Day Barbeque, Giovanni Caboto Park, 11:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
• September 6, 2010 - CDLC Annual Labour Day Barbeque, Calgary Olympic Plaza, 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.
• September 10/11, 2010 - CDLC Municipal Election Training Workshop. For more details ...

Did you know ...

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• Between 2006 and 2009, there were 142 fatalities on Alberta worksites, but only four convictions for fatalities that occurred since 2006. That's a 2.8-per-cent conviction rate for worksite fatalities. If we add the 17 charges that are pending, Alberta prosecutes at a rate of 14.8 per cent. What about the 120 other workers who have lost their lives on worksites since 2006?
• All of the 2009-2010 convictions are on guilty pleas, which shows the government's unwillingness to litigate OH&S cases. They appear to only go to court when they have 100-per-cent chance of winning, meaning they aren't willing to put any resources toward making employers accountable.
• The vast majority of 2009-2010 convictions were for incidents that occurred more than four years ago. Victims and their families are waiting a long time for resolution.
• Since 2005, Alberta Justice can't account for eight of the 57 fines levied against employers, according to a Calgary Herald investigation into prosecutions/convictions.

Edmonton - The Alberta government is failing to protect workers with its lax attitude toward prosecuting employers involved in workplace fatalities and injuries, according to research by the Alberta Federation of Labour.

"There were 142 deaths on Alberta worksites between 2006 and 2009, but only four of those deaths led to convictions," says Gil McGowan, president of the Alberta Federation of Labour (AFL), which represents 140,000 workers. "That's a 2.8-per-cent conviction rate for worksite fatalities. If you add the 17 charges that are pending, Alberta prosecutes at a rate of only 14.8 per cent. What about the 121 other workers who have lost their lives on worksites since 2006?"

Meanwhile, all of the 2009-2010 convictions were on guilty pleas, which clearly shows the government is unwilling to litigate Occupational Health and Safety (OH&S) cases, says McGowan. "They appear to only go to court when they have 100-per-cent chance of winning, meaning they aren't willing to put any resources toward making employers accountable."

This is in line with what a former Crown Prosecutor recently said in media reports, when she revealed that the Crown is "cherry-picking" cases, using too high of a legal threshold when deciding whether to lay charges. She believes safety violators are not being properly deterred in Alberta and workers and their families feel the fallout.

Through its failure to publish the full safety records of employers, including the names of companies with OH&S violations, through its failure to follow up on violations as identified recently by the Auditor General, and through its meagre spending on workplace safety compared to other jurisdictions, the Alberta government has clearly shown it puts the desires of business ahead of the safety of Albertans, says McGowan.

See the following for a detailed analysis of 2009-2010 prosecutions and convictions for injuries and fatalities under the OH&S Code.
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Media Contact:
Nancy Furling, Secretary Treasurer, Alberta Federation of Labour @ cell 780-720-8945

Backgrounder - Link to 2006-2009 Summary of Health and Safety Prosecutions

The application process is now under way for a new cohort of Next Up participants. This is an amazing, intensive and transformative program for young social change activists between the ages of 18 and 32. This year we're excited to announce that the program will operate in three provinces: Next Up BC in Vancouver, Next Up Alberta in Edmonton and Next Up Saskatchewan in Saskatoon.  

In each province, 13 young people will be selected. Participants will develop life-long relationships, explore different leadership styles, meet some of the province's leading change-makers, learn new leadership and organizing skills, and be exposed to current and topical social justice issues and progressive governance.

The application deadline for Next Up Alberta is Tuesday, Sept. 14. The program runs between October 2010 and April 2011.

Please forward this call far and wide -- to individuals, organizations, institutions and your progressive networks, with a special focus on networks that will boost the diversity of the program). And pass it on to specific people for whom you think this is a great fit. Thank you in advance for helping us find the fabulous young leaders for Next Up 2010/11 - you'll be thankful you did years from now!

Application forms and more information can be found at: http://www.nextup.ca.

Next Up is a project of genius (the global youth education network society), in partnership with the Columbia Institute Centre for Civic Governance, The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, and the Parkland Institute.

Aliya Jamal, Program Coordinator
Next Up Alberta
780-248-5846 (w) 780-691-3044 (c)

EDMONTON - A freeze on public-sector hiring may be a key reason Edmonton's unemployment rate is higher than the rest of the province, says Alberta Employment and Immigration Minister Thomas Lukaszuk.

"Many of Edmonton's residents are either directly or indirectly employed by government. All levels of government are still in a position where we have, effectively, hiring freezes," Lukaszuk said Friday.

"But let's be clear: We are not looking to, nor should we be looking to, government to be the body that creates employment by way of directly hiring individuals.

"Government's role is to create a climate that is conducive to (the) private sector creating jobs, and not government hiring individuals just to combat unemployment directly."

According to labour force statistics issued Friday, the Edmonton region's seasonally adjusted unemployment was 6.9 per cent in July 2010 compared to 7.2 per cent in July 2009.

The city's chief economist, however, said it is difficult to link the rate to the provincial, municipal or federal hiring freezes.

"I wouldn't be able to point the finger at government restraint or government freeze on hiring as being the single most important factor," said John Rose.

"That said, obviously the provincial government as well as the university and health-care sectors play a very large role in the Edmonton economy. And obviously if there's restraint in any one of those sectors it is going to hold back employment growth in the city."

Alberta unemployment was 6.3 per cent, its lowest since April 2009.

But Lukaszuk's conclusion had some raising their eyebrows, including the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees, which enters negotiations with the government next month on behalf of 20,000 public sector employees.

"It may not be the role of the government just to create a job for the sake of it, but it is the role of the government to create services and provide services," said Guy Smith, the union's executive director.

Gil McGowan, president of the Alberta Federation of Labour, argued the government does need to invest in hiring people.

"If the provincial government is serious about helping Albertans keep their heads above water during this recession, then they have to do more than hope for an increase in private -sector employment," McGowan said, adding the government's decision to cut positions earlier this year made a bad job landscape worse.

According to Statistics Canada, Alberta employment may have increased for the fourth consecutive month, but growth over the last year has been "among the slowest in the country at 1.2 per cent."

Nationally, the average rate remained flat, inching to 8.0 per cent, up 0.1 percentage points from the previous month. Compared to July 2009, the rate was down 0.6 percentage points.

 

Seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate for Edmonton

July 2010 - 6.9 per cent

June 2010 - 7.1 per cent

July 2009 - 7.2 per cent

Unadjusted unemployment rate (July 2010)

Edmonton Region 7.1 per cent

Calgary Region 6.8 per cent

Wood Buffalo-Cold Lake 4.9 per cent

Athabasca-Grande Prairie 6.5 per cent

Red Deer Region 5.6 per cent

Banff-Jasper-Rocky Mountain House 4.9 per cent

Camrose-Drumheller 3.8 per cent

Lethbridge-Medicine Hat 6.9 per cent

Edmonton Journal, Sat Aug 7 2010
Byline: Trish Audette and Bill Mah

Dismal job numbers prove it would be irresponsible to end federal stimulus spending, says AFL

Edmonton - Officially, Alberta's unemployment rate dropped for July, but those overall figures mask the fact that Alberta is shedding full-time jobs and mostly adding part-time employment, says Gil McGowan, President of the Alberta Federation of Labour.

Statistics Canada reports today that Alberta's unemployment rate has dropped to 6.3 per cent, but our employment growth has been the slowest in Canada, at 1.2 per cent. Even more troubling are the figures showing 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.

"Yesterday, Premier Stelmach and Premier Campbell from B.C. argued that the time has come to end federal stimulus spending and rely on the private sector to lead the recovery," said McGowan, who is in Winnipeg attending meetings parallel to the annual Premiers' conference.

"But these dismal jobs numbers prove it would be irresponsible for the federal government to follow their advice. You can't talk about an economic recovery in this country until we have a jobs recovery - and clearly that isn't happening."

Since May 2010, when the rest of the country began to show signs of economic recovery, Alberta dropped 22,000 full-time jobs and added 37,000 part-time jobs.

Today's employment numbers show only part of Alberta's economic picture, and it's not a rosy one. On July 30, the Department of Finance released its latest Monthly Economic Review. The review summarized the latest national economic indicators and showed:

• Alberta posted a 54-per-cent growth in business bankruptcies, the second-highest in Canada (April 2009-April 2010);
• Alberta's Employment Insurance (EI) beneficiaries were up 40 per cent, by far the biggest increase in Canada. The second-highest province saw an increase in EI beneficiaries of only 15 per cent. (April 2009-April 2010);
• Alberta posted only a 1.5-per-cent increase in wages and salaries, the smallest increase in Canada (March 2009-March 2010);
• Alberta showed only a 5.9-per-cent increase in retail trade, the second-lowest increase among the provinces (April 2009-April 2010);
• Alberta posted a 2.2-per-cent decrease in wholesale trade, the second-worst wholesale trade numbers in Canada, and one of only two provinces to post negative growth (April 2009-April 2010); and
• Alberta has the second-lowest farm cash receipts in Canada, ahead of only PEI.

Given the current economic realities, McGowan said Premier Stelmach should stop preaching austerity and cutback. In fact, Alberta should be talking about ramping up public spending, not rolling it back.

"Alberta is the only province that didn't ramp up its own spending to help its citizens  weather the recession," says McGowan. "That goes a long way towards explaining why Alberta has had a harder time with recovery than other provinces. To now be calling for an end to federal stimulus just doesn't make sense. The latest numbers prove that the private sector is not yet ready to fill the gap in terms job creation."

The complete July Monthly Economic Review, which contains economic commentary, statistics and indicators on the overall economy, labour market, price indices for household business sectors can be found here:
http://www.finance.alberta.ca/aboutalberta/index.html

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Media Contact: Gil McGowan, President, Alberta Federation of Labour (780) 218-9888

Excluding farm workers from workplace protections a legal minefield - allows unsafe work to continue

Edmonton - Reports that the Conservative government is likely to ignore an Alberta judge's recommendations to include farm workers in health, safety and employment standards legislation is a step down a dangerous path, says Gil McGowan, President of the Alberta Federation of Labour.

"By excluding farm workers from work-related rights and protections, the government of Alberta is going against the recommendations of one of its own judges and, clearly, acting unconstitutionally," says McGowan. "This is a dangerous path to opening themselves up to unnecessary litigation and more judicial inquiries when serious injuries or deaths inevitably occur."

A judicial inquiry in 2008 saw Alberta judge Peter Barley recommend the inclusion of farm workers in laws ensuring workplace protections.

Alberta remains the only province where farm workers are excluded from occupational health and safety laws, as well as legislation governing hours of work and overtime, statutory holidays, vacation pay, the right to refuse unsafe work, being informed of work-related dangers and compensation if they are injured on the job.

A 2006 Ontario court decision forced that province to change its laws, leaving Alberta the only place in Canada where farm workers are denied basic workplace protections. The Ontario decision was based on a Charter challenge which argued that singling out farm workers was discriminatory and unconstitutional.

The real dangers in excluding farm workers from workplace legislation lie in the government continuing to allow unsafe and potentially exploitative working environments to continue. "In the nine years the Alberta government has said it is 'consulting' on how to improve safety for agricultural workers, 160 people have died on farm worksites," says McGowan, adding that thousands of farm-related injuries are reported every year.

"This government likes to pretend that it represents rural Alberta. But thousands of rural Albertans are working on feedlots and other commercial agribusiness operations without rules governing their pay, hours of work, or right to compensation if they're hurt on the job. That's not representation. It's willful exploitation," adds McGowan.

The government claims that work-related protections, such as employment standards and occupational health and safety rules, will punish family farms. That argument is not based on fact. Large agribusiness dominates the industry. Farms with income over $250,000 accounted for three-quarters of farm cash receipts in 2007. At the same time, almost all "family farms" see owners having to work off-farm in order to make a living.

General farm workers earned an average of $13.13 per hour with a 46.6-hour work week in 2007, significantly below the average Alberta wage rate of $23.90 per hour.

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Media Contact: Gil McGowan, President, Alberta Federation of Labour (780) 218-9888

Members of General Teamsters Local 362 boosted picket line spirits at McKesson Canada in Edmonton last week, dropping by with a big rig to show their support for UFCW 401 strikers.

Striking workers have been picketing the McKesson facility in order to attempt to communicate with the drivers and to persuade them to refrain from doing business with McKesson and to urge scabs to reconsider the error of their ways.

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.

The workers at McKesson Edmonton invite other union members and supporters to visit them on the picket lines, which are set up at both McKesson warehouse locations. The main warehouse is at 10931 - 177 Street, and the smaller warehouse is at 18503 - 107 Avenue.

General Teamsters, Local Union No. 362 represents more than 6,000 members and oversees more than 100 collective agreements throughout Alberta.

EDMONTON - A union boss says the province's plan to publicly post safety records for all Alberta companies starting this September may fall well short of telling people whether or not they are at risk while on the job.

"What will be missing will be any sense of what (a worksite's) violations were," said Gil McGowan, president of the Alberta Federation of Labour.

"Honestly, I don't know if the information on this website will be valuable at all in terms of providing an incentive for employers to clean up their acts in terms of health and safety."

On Friday, Employment and Immigration Minister Thomas Lukaszuk unveiled a multi-tiered plan to clean up the province's Occupational Health and Safety program.

The move comes three months after a lengthy investigation by the auditor general's office indicating some Alberta companies repeatedly fail to comply with safety orders, and face no real repercussions from the province for falling short of safety laws.

Lukaszuk said Friday the compliance orders written about in the auditor general's spring report have since been reviewed, but he said he has no intention of naming the companies that had open orders.

"The companies that are not compliant, from now on, those orders remain open ... to make sure that compliance takes place," Lukaszuk said.

"We will ensure that they remain compliant or they will not be in business in this province."

Lukaszuk plans to set up a website this fall that will reflect the safety records of Alberta companies.

The minister said he won't release details about what will go online until next month, but the public postings are expected to focus on annual statistics for lost time rather than a breakdown of what caused workers to be hurt on their jobs.

"We're going to focus around the lost time claims," department spokesman Chris Chodan said. "It's fairly straightforward statistics ... It's a recognized standard."

By themselves, McGowan said, those numbers mean nothing. To push employers to change their ways, he said, the province should post compliance orders, court orders, and other safety documentation.

Alberta has the second-highest rate of worker fatalities in the country; in 2008, the province saw 166 people killed on the job, or nine of every 100,000 workers. In 2009, 110 people were killed while at work.

A spokesman for the construction industry said employers are pleased with the province's plans to post safety records because the website will be limited to statistics for shifts lost as a result of workplace injuries.

"It's something that they can live with," said Robin Kotyk, chief operating officer of the Alberta Construction Safety Association.

"If they show everybody out there, they're not being pinholed as being bad or being good."

In 2002, the province pledged to highlight Alberta's best and worst employers. But on Friday, Lukaszuk said he has no plans to make such information public.

"Releasing just a snippet of the best and a snippet of the worst, no matter where I draw the line, the public would ask who's just beyond the line?" Lukaszuk said.

"Why not release to Albertans all the companies with all the records, and contextualize it (by showing) what industry they're part of, how many employees they have, and give you the ability to decide who are the best and the worst."

Edmonton-Gold Bar Liberal MLA Hugh MacDonald cautiously applauded Lukaszuk's plans, but noted similar promises have been made in the past.

MacDonald also criticized the province's failure to break down best and worst company safety records.

"I can't understand why we can't make the lists public of all employers with a bad safety record and all employers with a good safety record. Because the good employers are penalized here, whenever we fail to do that," MacDonald said.

The website is just one element of Lukaszuk's plan to make the Occupational Health and Safety program more transparent.

The minister is also putting a freeze on the province's Best Safety Performer Awards. In the past, some companies have been convicted of breaking workplace laws and still managed to win insurance rebates that exceeded the fines.

Lukaszuk said the program will be reviewed and will not be restarted until he is certain only "deserving companies" receive discounts.

Eight new Occupational Health and Safety officers will be hired, while the department updates its enforcement procedures. A pilot program to inspect workplaces on evenings and weekends is also being launched.

A recent Calgary Herald investigation showed Alberta is the province least likely to penalize employers despite having more prosecutors dedicated to workplace accidents than most other jurisdictions.

The Herald's findings were part of a series of stories about Alberta's poor workplace safety record that were published last month; MacDonald said Friday he had no doubt the scrutiny directly pushed Lukaszuk to make changes.

The minister, however, said he had heard not just from the auditor general's office and journalists since becoming minister in January, but also opposition members, employers and workers. "We're all in this together," he said.

Edmonton Journal, Sat July 31 2010
Byline: Trish Audette

AFL asks: "Who got to the minister and convinced him to back down?"

Once again, Alberta workers have been disappointed by an Alberta government that says it cares about them, but shows by its actions that workplace safety is not as big a priority as it should be.

"The government had a real chance to save lives and prevent workplace injuries, but today they failed to take full advantage of that opportunity," says Gil McGowan, president of the Alberta Federation of Labour, which represents 140,000 workers.

While the 10-point plan announced today by Employment Minister Thomas Lukaszuk has some merit, upon closer examination, it doesn't live up to its promise.

"Albertans want and have a right to know the full safety records of employers, including their history of violations of the Occupational Health and Safety Code.," says McGowan. "We were led to believe that these records, including details of all violations, would be made available and posted on a website. What we are getting instead, according to the Minister, is a much less useful list of times lost to injuries. The number of violations a company has, and what those violations were will be kept secret."

As well as lacking the courage to reveal the names of employers who violate the safety code, the government has shown it hasn't got the stomach 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 only three per cent of workplace fatalities.

"Employers are not being made to pay the price for putting the workers' lives at risk. The result is that many Alberta employers don't take safety as seriously as they should - because they know they can likely get away with doing less. This needs to change - and a plan for more aggressive prosecutions should be a core part of the minister's plan," says McGowan.

The AFL welcomes the plan to hire eight new inspectors, but questions whether this will be enough. Alberta has more people working in the most dangerous occupations than other provinces and needs to have a much higher number of inspectors to ensure rules are being followed.

These inspectors should also be given the power to issue tickets and fines for smaller offences right on the spot - as opposed to having to wait for long legal prosecutions, which, in Alberta, are often not pursued.

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Media Contact: Gil McGowan, President, Alberta Federation of Labour (780) 218-9888

 

Alberta's Workers' Compensation Board (WCB) is the only board in Canada that pays bonuses to staff as an incentive to trim their caseloads, according to the Alberta Federation of Labour (AFL), which wants the "immoral" practice stopped.

The AFL is also critical of the rates the WCB collects, pointing out that it collects the lowest premiums in the country from employers in dangerous industries.

According to the AFL, employers in the province's oil and natural gas exploration pay 55 cents per $100 of payroll in WCB premiums. Companies in the rest of Canada pay four times as much at $2 per $100 of payroll. Industrial construction companies in Alberta pay $2.04 per $100 of payroll. In the rest of Canada, construction companies pay $4.30 per $100 of payroll.

"The Alberta WCB's low premium rates and its immoral bonus system for case managers are two sides of the same coin," said AFL president Gil McGowan. "After years of putting a priority on premium reduction, the Alberta WCB simply doesn't have the funds to fulfill its mandate of supporting and rehabilitating injured workers. Sadly, instead of increasing premium rates, the board has focused on finding new ways to deny claims and otherwise reduce pay-outs. This perverse and despicable bonus system is the pinnacle of this process."

The AFL's comments came in the wake of revelations by Alberta's Liberal Party that the WCB paid $8 million in bonuses to its 1,500 employees in 2009 for meeting corporate goals, including getting injured workers back on the job and off benefits. (That amounts to an average of $5,600 per worker, and the program - called "goal sharing" - has been in place since 1999, according to the WCB.)

Hugh MacDonald, the Liberal employment critic, said it was "unfair" and distorts the objectivity of the WCB.

WCB spokeswoman Jennifer Dagsvik told the Calgary Herald there is nothing wrong with the bonuses because all decisions about when a worker is fit to return to work are based on medical advice.

"We wouldn't send someone back to work just to make a bonus," Dagsvik said. "If we weren't doing it well, it would come back on us. And it isn't. We have audits that are done and people are staying successfully at work . . . and when I say successful, I mean a healthy return to work."

A survey of other provinces conducted by the AFL revealed that no other Canadian WCBs give bonuses to their case managers for closing files or meeting "quotas."

The closest that any province came was Newfoundland and Labrador which, a few years ago, tried to introduce a job description for its WCB case managers stating that one of their priorities would be to consider the "financial viability" of the board when making their decisions, according to the AFL.

That clause in the job description was eventually eliminated after the union representing WCB workers raised strenuous objections on the grounds that it would make it difficult for their members to carry out their core responsibility - which is to provide benefits and support to injured workers based on the best medical advice, not on financial objectives or targets set by management.

"It's perhaps not surprising that Alberta is the only province that has this kind of perverse bonus system. We're also the only province where WCB employees are not represented by a union," said McGowan. "No union would ever have allowed this kind of system to be imposed. It puts WCB staff members in a horrible conflict-of-interest position."

McGowan said that the bonus system in Alberta literally adds insult to injury for injured workers.

Alberta has a higher workplace fatality rate than the rest of Canada (5.9 per 100,000 workers compared with 4.2 per 100,000 workers in the rest of Canada), said McGowan, and there are more people working in dangerous occupations than other provinces (22 per cent of Albertans work in the four most dangerous industries versus about 15 per cent in other provinces).

"Given these realities, the Alberta WCB should be collecting more premiums and paying out more for benefits and rehabilitation than other provinces. The fact that they don't - and instead are constantly focused on premium reductions for employers - shows that the Alberta WCB's priorities are seriously confused," he said.

Canadian Safety Reporter, Sat July 28 2010