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The Alberta Federation of Labour (AFL) today urged Employment, Immigration and Industry Minister Iris Evans to extend basic employment rights and protections to Alberta farmworkers. In a letter to the Minister, AFL President Gil McGowan suggested that the issue needs to be dealt with now to prevent future tragedies in the industry.

"It is unconscionable that the only time attention is paid to the plight of farmworkers is in the aftermath of tragedies like the recent fatal traffic accident in BC or the death of Kevan Chandler on a farm near Black Diamond last June," says McGowan.

"I have asked Minister Evans to act now to extend basic workplace protections to Alberta farmworkers," says McGowan.

According to McGowan, Alberta farmworkers enjoy even less protection than their counterparts in BC. "Alberta farmworkers have no basic employment protections such as minimum wage, limits on hours of work, rest breaks, overtime or statuary holiday pay" says McGowan. "They enjoy no health and safety protection, nor do they qualify for WCB when they get injured."

McGowan has asked for a meeting to discuss the urgency of the issue with the Minster.

"If we begin the process to correct this social injustice now," concludes McGowan, "we can prevent future farmworker fatalities and suffering in Alberta."

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For more information contact:
Gil McGowan, AFL President       Cell: (780) 218-9888

 

In the Old West, calling a man a coward was a shooting matter, and "Mr. Colt" usually had the final word.

It's unlikely, however, Alberta premier Ed Stelmach is toting a six-shooter or that he would even care if Gil McGowan, president of the Alberta Federation of Labour, would have called him a chicken-livered yellow belly.

Stelmach might pay attention, however, if thousands of Albertans did.

McGowan, who spoke Thursday in Lethbridge at a session of the Southern Alberta Council on Public Affairs, said Stelmach has lost his nerve and he wants Albertans to help him get it back.

The premier has backed down to big oil companies and is not, despite promises during the leadership race, doing anything about low oilsand royalties, out-of-control development and the shipping of raw bitumen out of the province, he said.

"Based on his performance so far, it seems that our new premier either didn't mean what he said during the leadership race when he promised to turn a page on the Klein era, or that he's lost his nerve," McGowan said.

He said he's prepared to give Stelmach the benefit of the doubt and assume he's lost his nerve. So he's driving a campaign to help the premier get a backbone.

"My goal is not to unfairly criticize the premier or to paint him as some kind of villain. Instead, my goal is to convince Ed that his initial instincts were correct and that he shouldn't backslide on the promises he made during the leadership campaign."

And if enough Albertans speak out, McGowan believes Stelmach will realize maintaining or only tweaking the status quo of the Klein era is not acceptable.

McGowan pointed out during the leadership race Stelmach said the one-cent-on-the-dollar royalty introduced and maintained by former premier Ralph Klein is too low and needs to be increased.

Stelmach also said it's not in the public's interest to let energy companies ship vast amounts of raw oilsands bitumen out of the province without refining or upgrading it, and he promised to do something about skyrocketing house prices and the rapidly rising cost of living.

"Those were the positions taken by candidate Stelmach, but it's amazing what a difference a few weeks can make. Today, the messages emanating from the premier's office sound a lot different from the ones that we heard . . . on the campaign trail."

McGowan said Albertans should be angry oil companies only pay one cent on the dollar for the right to exploit Alberta's resources, especially when the rate was designed to encourage investment when oil was selling for only $15 barrel.

"You should be mad because energy companies raked in more than $15 billion in oilsands revenue last year, but paid only about $700 million in royalties; less than the province collected from gambling.

"You should be mad because all that revenue that we've forgone as a result of the one-penny royalty could have been used to strengthen our health-care system, fix our crumbling infrastructure and to educate our children and grandchildren."

In addition, McGowan said Albertans should be angry because Canada's two biggest pipeline companies are raising billions of dollars to build huge pipelines with only one purpose; to take unrefined bituman from Alberta for processing south of the border. That means thousands of potential refining jobs will follow the pipeline into the U.S. And the jobs that are being created are given to temporary foreign workers who, in turn, are being used as pawns to lower wages and as an excuse not to train workers at home.

McGowan said Albertans need to tell Stelmach to do five things: block construction of the bitumen pipeline; guarantee a fair return for oil resources by scrapping the one-cent royalty; introduce leases for oilsands properties that require energy companies to create jobs in Alberta; tighten rules for temporary foreign workers; and to regulate the pace of oilsands development so there is more time to address the economic and environmental implications of development.

Lethbridge Herald, Feb 9 2007
Byline: Delon Shurtz

Labour Economic Monitor (February 2007)

After over a decade of almost uninterrupted growth, Alberta is now entering the fifth year of an economic boom. Despite the mismanagement of the Klein government, which ran the province without any real economic plan, despite the ludicrously royalty rates and the obsession with tax cutting, our economy continues to churn out jobs.

Against the objections of their union, the Alberta Labour Relation Board (LRB) has ruled that striking Palace Casino workers in Edmonton must vote on an employer offer that the union categorized as "illegal, contrary to the scheme of the Code, a product of a failure to bargain in good faith , and incapable of forming a collective agreement."

"This decision once again illustrates why the labour movement has become increasingly frustrated and unhappy with the Alberta Labour Relations Board," says Alberta Federation of Labour President Gil McGowan. "We don't object to free votes on fair offers - but we oppose forced votes on unfair offers. We recognize that such forced votes are unfortunately allowed by the Code, but the Board should have been more attentive to union objections and the impact on striking workers."

"Palace Casino has forced its workers on strike because they refuse to recognize the value of their own workers in Alberta's booming economy," observes McGowan. "After four months on the picket line through bitter weather, it has become clear that the company could not break the spirit of the union members. That's why the company is forcing this vote now."

The problem with this employer tactic, according to McGowan is that it short-circuits the bargaining process. "Rather than negotiate a fair deal with the bargaining team, the employer is trying to go behind their backs and bully workers into an inferior deal," notes McGowan. "When that offer includes things that were deemed improper by the Board, it should not be forced on union members."

The union has also complained that the Board excised the important �back-to-work protocol' from the agreement rather than fixing it. This back-to-work agreement is not only typical of collective agreements after strikes - they are essential to protect union activists from employer reprisals.

The fact that the forced offer includes a signing bonus is another indication of double-dealing, according to McGowan. "Signing bonuses are a cheap attempt to convince workers to act against their own best interests," says McGowan. "If the offer isn't good enough on its own merit, simply waving cash under the noses of people who have been on strike for four months is both underhanded and demeaning.

"The Labour Relations Board shouldn't need to be reminded that it is here to safeguard workers' rights and help create good labour relations. Their mandate doesn't include helping employers sell bad agreements," concludes McGowan.

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For more information contact:  Gil McGowan Bus: (780) 483-3021 Cell: (780) 218-9888

 

The Alberta Federation of Labour reacted today to a new study by Statistics Canada looking at work hours across the country. The study revealed that Albertans work the most hours of any province in the country.

"Albertans are working our fingers to the bone in this boom," says AFL President Gil McGowan. "I wonder what price we pay for these long hours."

"Everyone is pushing hard to get the work done, putting in extra hours. While this might be admirable on one level, I am left very concerned," notes McGowan.

"First, longer work hours are causing an increase in workplace accidents and fatalities. Tired, stressed out workers with bosses pushing them to work harder and longer create unsafe working conditions."

"Extra hours at work also mean fewer hours with your family. It means less time to be in your community with friends and neighbours. That negatively affects quality of life. Is this the kind of province we want to build?"

The study showed that Albertans averaged 1,880 hours at work a year � more than 36 hours a week, after removing vacation time. This is the highest in the country. More significant is the finding that 12.5% of workers - again the highest in Canada � work more than 2,300 hours. A whopping 6.4% work more than 2,700 hours a year, which equals more than 51 hours a week.

"The main culprits in long work hours are agriculture and oil and gas. Agriculture is exempt from basic employment standards, which means there are no protections for workers. Oil and gas has become a wild west. We need to get a handle on these industries," observes McGowan.

McGowan believes we need to make quality of life a bigger priority, which includes reducing the number of hours we work. "What good is a big paycheque if your family is a mess and you have no time to enjoy the fruits of your labour?"

"We should see this study as a warning signal that our boom is unsustainable at this pace. We need to get smarter and more balanced."

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For more information contact:

Gil McGowan Tel: (780) 483-3021 Cell: (780) 218-9888

Gil McGowan, President of the Alberta Federation of Labour, January 10, 2007

There's no denying that times are good in Alberta. Unemployment is low, profits are high - and many Albertans are enjoying wages and opportunities that people living in other provinces can only dream about. This is the story we read about on the business pages. It's the story our politicians talk about and it's the story the public is encouraged to focus on. But there's another story in Alberta. In fact, there's a whole other Alberta. There's a whole population of Albertans for whom the boom is little more than a distant echo. That's why we at the Alberta Federation of Labour have participated in the preparation of this report. We think it's long past time that our leaders acknowledge the fact that not everyone is sharing in the so-called Alberta Advantage. The truth may not be comfortable for the comfortable to look at - and it may not jibe with the government's preferred script - but it's a truth that needs to be brought out from the shadows. The truth, as this report shows, is that not all boats are rising. The truth is that, even in here in wealthy Alberta, thousands of Albertans go to work every, they work hard - and yet they still can't make ends meet. The truth is that a quarter of working Albertans make less than $12 an hour and that the minimum wage is a cruel joke. The truth is also that wage increases for most Albertans are not keeping pace with the increase in costs for things like transportation, gas, home heating, food, child care and, especially, housing. For me, what is perhaps most troubling is that these issues don't even seem to be on the provincial government's radar screen.

You probably all remember that just before Christmas, our new Premier gave letters to each of his new cabinet ministers outlining his expectations and setting out his priorities for each ministry. The letter to Employment, Immigration and Industry Minister Iris Evan talked about the labour shortage, it talked about training - but it didn't talk about poverty and it didn't talk about struggling families. There's an old saying that the first step toward recovery is to admit you have a problem. Well, what we seem to have here is a government in denial. Some people may say: what can government do about these kinds of problems? They might say "the market will decide" or that we can never truly eliminate poverty. But what we're saying today is that the government, through its low minimum wage and patch-work approach to social policy - has helped create this problem. And they need to be part of the solution. The good news is that our governments have their hands on policy levers that can help. The provincial government could and should increase the minimum wage and index it to inflation. They could and should develop and fund a real child care program. And finally they, along with municipal governments, could and should adopt living wage policies for their employees and all their contracts. In the end, government is about choices. And when it comes to social policy, governments have a choice to take the high road or low road. The low road says let the market decide and let workers fend for themselves. The high road says all society benefits when families are given a hand up and when we as a society say we will not condemn any of our fellow citizens to lives of poverty and despair. Living Wage policies, like the ones outlined in this report, are concrete ways we can make the goal of reducing and eliminating poverty a reality.

But the first step is for all of us to convince our leaders and our governments that's it's time to take the off the rose coloured glasses. This report is the first stage in what will be an on-going campaign to do just that.

The announcement of the new Alberta cabinet doesn�t create any new confidence in the direction of the Conservative government, says the Alberta Federation of Labour today.

"I fail to see any real potential for positive change in this cabinet," says AFL President Gil McGowan. "Lyle Oberg as Finance Minister suggests working people will not be this government's first priority."

In particular, the departmental restructuring suggests the government will put the interests of industry over average Albertans.

"By combining Industry with the old Human Resources Employment, we see a clash of priorities. For the decision-makers at Industry, good labour laws, strong enforcement of Employment Standards and safe workplaces are just a barrier to profits," notes McGowan.

"The AFL is worried that the influence of industry in labour programs may leave workers in the cold."

The AFL's response to the appointment of Iris Evans as the Minister of Employment, Immigration and Industry is cautious.

"We are hopeful we can build a fruitful and constructive relationship with the new Minister," says McGowan. "But I must admit to being slightly nervous given her track record in Health. Her support of the Third Way makes me pause."

"However, we are hopeful we can engage her about the serious issues facing Alberta workers today. We will be requesting a meeting with her soon to discus stronger health and safety rules, better enforcement of employment standards and improvements to the Labour Relations Board, among other issues."

"All in all, this cabinet continues to suggest a government more interested in protecting the energy industry than determining how Albertans can benefit from the boom."

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For more information contact: Gil McGowan Tel: (780) 483-3021 Cell: (780) 218-9888

 

 

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I honestly didn't want to start criticizing Ed Stelmach before his official swearing-in ceremony on December 15.

Just common courtesy, I told myself. Give the guy at least a day or two to settle into the big chair.

Unfortunately, events of the past week have made it impossible for me to maintain my polite silence.

It all started with Stelmach's first news conference following his come-from-behind leadership victory.

Stelmach told reporters his government will do nothing to moderate the pace of growth in the oilsands.

"There's no such thing as touching the brake," he said, adding he has faith big energy companies will "sort things out" and address concerns about over-heated development themselves.

The big problem with Stelmach's hands-off approach to development issues is that it assumes that big energy companies will "do the right thing." But it's becoming increasingly obvious that corporations doing the right thing for themselves is not the same thing as doing the right thing for Albertans.

The truth of this observation was made painfully clear only a few days after Stelmach's news conference when Synenco Energy President Todd Newton announced plans for his company's Northern Lights oilsands plant.

Instead of building their plant here in Alberta, Newton says Synenco will build it in huge pieces in Asia - China, Korea and Malaysia to be precise - and ship it by sea and river to Fort McMurray.

While Synenco will save money by using low-cost foreign labour, Alberta will loose about 1,000 high-skilled, high-wage construction jobs.

This is the part of the equation that Stelmach doesn't seem to understand.

By encouraging virtually unrestrained oilsands development, our provincial government has created an over-heated market for labour, engineering and building materials. This over-heated market has, in turn, encouraged more and more big corporations to embrace development plans that cut Alberta workers out of the picture.

Synenco is doing this with its hare-brained scheme to float an oilsands plant across the ocean. But other companies are getting in on the act, too. Citing cost concerns, major companies like EnCana, BP and Husky Oil have all decided to build plants to upgrade or refine Alberta oil outside of Alberta.

This all begs the question: what's the point of digging up and selling off our collectively-owned oil resources if the benefits are going, not to Albertans, but to people living in other countries?

It also raises important questions for our new Premier. Will he sit idly by while Alberta jobs are shipped down a pipeline? Will he look the other way while Alberta workers are quite literally being sold down the river?

During the leadership campaign Stelmach promised to revisit Alberta's ridiculous penny-on-the-dollar oilsands royalty. If he's serious, it would be a long-overdue step in the right direction.

He also said he would find some way to encourage energy companies to refine and upgrade bitumen from the tar sands here in Alberta.

But Stelmach can't have it both ways. He can't say he wants plants built here and bitumen upgraded here at the same time he argues all the important decisions should be left with energy companies.

Left to themselves, energy companies will make decisions based on what works best for them and for their global shareholders. The interests of Albertans don't even enter the picture.

Like it or not, if Stelmach is serious about getting a better deal for Albertans, what's needed is a radical shift is the relationship we have with the oil companies that exploit our resources.

As it stands right now, energy companies are the senior partners in our economy - they call the shots and we, members of the Alberta public, get some of the excess cash that spills from their overflowing pockets.

If Stelmach wants to keep the benefits of our oil resources in the province, he's going to have to engineer a role reversal. In particular, he's going to have to follow the advice of former premier Peter Lougheed who said last summer that Albertans have to start "thinking like owners" when it comes to the oilsands.

As owners, we have to remind ourselves that the oil companies work for us, not the other way around. We also have to summon the courage to promote those "hire hands" who do the job the way we want it done and "fire" those who don't. Synenco should be the first one to get a pink slip.

But it shouldn't stop there. As owners we should also be saying "no" to pipelines designed to take raw bitumen to refineries in the U.S.; we should be saying "yes" to royalties that guarantee a fair rate of return for oil companies but return windfall profits to Albertans; and we should be saying "yes" to a new system of conditional oilsands leases that grant development rights only to those companies that and build and process in Canada.

At the end of the day, what Albertans need is a champion - someone to stand up the energy companies, assert new authority and demand a better deal for Albertans.

Does Ed Stelmach have the right stuff? Will he choose to take the side of ordinary Albertans - or, by maintaining the status quo, will he side with the big energy companies?

Only time will tell - but here's hoping he surprises the general public in the same way he surprised Tory party members.

Gil McGowan, AFL President
December 2006

The Alberta Federation of Labour (AFL) responded to Citizenship and Immigration Minister Monte Solberg's announcement this morning that the federal government will be relaxing rules for the importing of temporary foreign workers by predicting it will lead to greater abuse of the system, more exploitation of foreign workers, and suppression of wages in Alberta.

"In Conservative-speak, 'streamlining' is shorthand for 'let employers do what they want'. I do not trust Harper's government to protect either the foreign workers coming to Canada or to ensure Canadian workers are not pushed aside," observes AFL President Gil McGowan.

"The plans to make it easier for employers to bring in temporary foreign workers will lead to more abuses of the system," says McGowan. "Employers will turn to foreign workers as an initial solution, rather than as a means of last resort."

Under current rules, each employer must prove an inability to find Canadian workers available to do the job before becoming eligible to import foreign workers. Under the proposed plan, regional lists of occupations will replace the burden of proof.

"The proposed plan removes the checks-and-balances. It opens the door to employers who want to bring in foreign workers just to keep wage rates down, or because Canadian workers might know their rights and demand they be respected."

McGowan states that today's announcement signals the government has given up on trying to improve training and education of Canadian workers to ensure needed skills are available. "Their one and only strategy for solving labour market difficulties is bring in more vulnerable workers."

McGowan expresses concern for how the rights of temporary foreign workers will be protected. "The government is developing a guide specifically for employers. What about a guide for workers coming to Canada telling them their rights?"

"The end result of this announcement is an up and a down. The up will be a dramatic increase in the number of vulnerable foreign workers at risk of exploitation. The down will be average wage levels in Alberta � for that is the primary motivation of importing temporary foreign workers.

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For more Information:

Gil McGowan, President   Tel: (780) 483-3021         Cell: (780) 218-9888

So, federal Immigration Minister Monte Solberg is tired of waiting in line to get his double-double at Tim Horton's.

For those who missed it, that was one of the rationales Solberg gave when he announced new measures aimed at making it easier for employers in Alberta and B.C. to bring temporary foreign workers into the country.

Solberg's comment was obviously meant as a joke - but the policy direction he outlined at his news conference in Edmonton is no laughing matter.

In fact, by lowering the bar for employers and making it easier for them to hire temporary foreign workers as a first choice, rather than a last resort, I'm afraid Solberg has set Canada in motion down a very dangerous road.

In particular, I'm worried the federal Conservatives are laying the groundwork for the creation of an underclass of workers in this country - a class of guest workers who won't have the same rights and protections in the workplace that Canadian workers take for granted.

I'm also worried that by making it almost laughably easy for employers to import foreign workers in an eye-popping 170 occupational categories, the Harper government is handing employers a big stick that, at least in some cases, will be used to demand concessions, displace Canadian workers and keep wages down.

Think I'mover-reacting? Consider the evidence.

Just three months ago, the manager of a nursing home in Kelowna laid off 70 personal care aides when they refused to accept major rollbacks to their wages and benefits. He is now attempting to fill the vacancies he created with temporary foreign workers -and thanks to Solberg's new rules, his job just got easier.

Similar stories are also coming out of the oil sands. I've received numerous calls from tradesmen who say their work has mysteriously dried up at the same time that their former employers have taken on increased numbers of temporary foreign workers.

So when the government says temporary workers will only be brought into the country "when there is no one available to do the job in Canada", a growing number of Alberta workers are saying that doesn't mesh with their personal experience.

None of this should have come as a surprise to Mr. Solberg and his Conservative colleagues.

The experience from other countries that have relied on "guest worker" programs to deal with real or perceived labour shortages is as extensive as it is sobering.

Countries as diverse as the United States, Germany, France, Switzerland, Kuwait and Singapore have all experimented with these programs: and they've all had to deal with the same negative effects.

Among other problems, guest worker programs have led to the establishment of ethnically-based "job ghettos"; they have sparked tension between foreign and domestic workers; and they have resulted in often rampant exploitation and of foreign workers by employers.

The big reason why programs like the one Solberg is expanding have proven to be so problematic is that they bring workers into the country on temporary basis as opposed to welcoming them as full-fledged immigrants and prospective citizens.

Landed immigrants and citizens have rights - perhaps most importantly, the right of mobility. If they don't like the way an employer is treating them or how much they're being paid, they can vote with their feet.

Workers brought into the country under the temporary foreign worker program, on the other hand, have no such rights. In a sense, they are hostages to the employers that sponsored them - and as such they are vulnerable exploitation.

Solberg says we shouldn't worry about abuse by employers because federal regulations promise that temporary foreign workers will be paid the "going Canadian rate" and because these workers will be protected by the same employment standards systems that cover Canadian workers.

But who exactly decides the "going rate"? And does it include the value of benefits enjoyed by Canadian workers?

Also, given that Solberg has put absolutely no enforcement mechanisms in place, how can we be sure that employers aren't ignoring the rules and paying temporary foreign workers less than the minimum wage - as evidence suggests they were doing recently with imported construction workers on a Vancouver railway project?

As for Solberg's reassurance that foreign workers will be protected by provincial employment standards systems: is he kidding? Here in Alberta, we have 55 employment standards officers to police the concerns of nearly two million workers.

Even more importantly, investigations are only launched when an employee lodges a formal complaint. Does Solberg really think that any temporary foreign worker - in Canada at the pleasure of their employers - would actually ever do that?

The big irony in all this is that the current push for increased foreign workers is coming from a Conservative government that purports to be a "defender of the market".

What the market in Alberta is telling employers today is that they need to increase wages to attract and retain employees. And it's also saying that businesses should be putting some projects on hold until prices come down.

Unfortunately, Solberg only has ears for business owners who want him to intervene in the labour market. In a sense, they've convinced the government to help them defy the economic laws of gravity.

As usual, the market is the wise, all-knowing force that can't be ignored - except of course when it's actually helping average working stiffs.

So in the end, what can be done to address Alberta's tight labour market? Contrary to those who support beefed-up guest workers programs, there is no silver bullet.

Part of the answer lies in better training for Canadians to meet the demand for skilled workers and increased wages to attract people from parts of the country with higher levels of unemployment.

Another part of the answer lies in slowing the pace of development - especially in the oil sands.

Finally, any real solution needs to include increases in real immigration, as opposed to ill-conceived guest worker programs: because if foreign workers are good enough to come here and serve us coffee or build our homes, they're good enough to stay as citizens.

By Gil McGowan, AFL President
November 2006