ALF V1

Final written argument of the Alberta Federation of Labour in the matter of Enbridge Application to the National Energy Board for Line 9 Capacity Expansion and Line 9B Reversal.  

October 3, 2013

The Alberta Federation of Labour urges the National Energy Board to approve the Enbridge Line 9/9B Project. We believe the Project satisfies the Section 52 public interest criteria by contributing to jobs for Albertans and Canadians and Canadian energy security.

The Alberta economy is heavily dependent upon petroleum exploration, extraction, and processing.  According to government figures, the energy sector accounted for 27.6% of Alberta’s GDP.  

Many of our members work in upgrading in Fort McMurray and Edmonton. Upgrading bitumen – into a product called Synthetic Crude Oil – is a capital and labour-intensive process that yields a number of petrochemicals in addition to SCO. There are markets for those petrochemicals that form part of Alberta’s petrochemical processing cluster, which was built using public policy instruments in the 1970s. Oil sands upgraders spur a chain of economic spinoffs throughout the entire Albertan economy. Given the far-reaching consequences of these economic spinoffs and diversification, including but not limited to more unionized employment in the Canadian energy sector, the Alberta Federation of Labour has been a frequent intervener in pipeline proceedings at the National Energy Board. In our previous interventions, which we recommend to the Board and have filed as evidence, we oppose bitumen export pipelines on the grounds that they export good-paying, long-term, unionized jobs.

2013 Defend AB Pension: Major changes to public service pension plans will do serious harm

September 17, 2013

Time: 3:00 PM, Monday, September 16

Place: United Nurses of Alberta

11150 Jasper Avenue, Edmonton (Suite 700 – 7th Floor)

Participants:

Elisabeth Ballermann, President, Health Sciences Association of Alberta
Gil McGowan, President, Alberta Federation of Labour
Guy Smith, President, Alberta Union of Provincial EmployeesHeather Smith, President, United Nurses of Alberta
Marle Roberts, President, Canadian Union of Public Employees-Alberta

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MEDIA CONTACT:

Olav Rokne, AFL Communications Director at 780-289-6528 (cell) or via email [email protected].

Time: 3:00 PM, Monday, September 16

Place: United Nurses of Alberta

11150 Jasper Avenue, Edmonton (Suite 700 – 7th Floor)

Participants:

Elisabeth Ballermann, President, Health Sciences Association of Alberta
Gil McGowan, President, Alberta Federation of Labour
Guy Smith, President, Alberta Union of Provincial EmployeesHeather Smith, President, United Nurses of Alberta
Marle Roberts, President, Canadian Union of Public Employees-Alberta

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MEDIA CONTACT:

Olav Rokne, AFL Communications Director at 780-289-6528 (cell) or via email [email protected].

Time: 3:00 PM, Monday, September 16

Place: United Nurses of Alberta

11150 Jasper Avenue, Edmonton (Suite 700 – 7th Floor)

Participants: Elisabeth Ballermann, President, Health Sciences Association of Alberta

Gil McGowan, President, Alberta Federation of Labour

Guy Smith, President, Alberta Union of Provincial Employees

Heather Smith, President, United Nurses of Alberta

Marle Roberts, President, Canadian Union of Public Employees-Alberta

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MEDIA CONTACT:

Olav Rokne, AFL Communications Director at 780-289-6528 (cell) or via email [email protected].

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File: G:\Communications\NEWS\AFL\2013\Media Advisory-Union Leaders Respond to Pension Announcement_2013 Sept 16.docx

Time: 3:00 PM, Monday, September 16

Place: United Nurses of Alberta

11150 Jasper Avenue, Edmonton (Suite 700 – 7th Floor)

Participants:

Elisabeth Ballermann, President, Health Sciences Association of Alberta
Gil McGowan, President, Alberta Federation of Labour
Guy Smith, President, Alberta Union of Provincial EmployeesHeather Smith, President, United Nurses of Alberta
Marle Roberts, President, Canadian Union of Public Employees-Alberta

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MEDIA CONTACT:

Olav Rokne, AFL Communications Director at 780-289-6528 (cell) or via email [email protected].

Leaders of five Alberta public employees' unions and the Alberta Federation of Labour are concerned and disappointed by the sweeping changes to public service pension plans proposed this morning by Finance Minister Doug Horner.

If the changes introduced today are implemented, as Horner indicated he is determined to do, the bottom line is that Alberta public employees will have diminished pensions.

Members of Alberta's public service pension plans would have to work longer to retire, and when they retire their benefits will be reduced.

In addition, their retirement incomes will more rapidly fall behind inflation.

The minister himself has conceded, and pension plan actuaries have confirmed, that the pension plans are currently sustainable. There is no need for major cuts to benefits.

Public service union leaders were encouraged that the minister was willing to discuss shared governance of the plan, but believe that any pension benefit changes should be left to the employee and employer representatives to negotiate after shared governance is put in place.

Despite their unhappiness, the leaders of the Alberta Colleges and Institutes Faculties Association, Alberta Union of Provincial Employees, Canadian Union of Public Employees, Health Sciences Association of Alberta, United Nurses of Alberta and AFL are committed to continued discussions with the government and employers.

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MEDIA CONTACT:

Olav Rokne, Communications Director, Alberta Federation of Labour at 780.289.6528 (cell) or via e-mail [email protected]

Time: 3:00 PM, Monday, September 16

Place: United Nurses of Alberta

11150 Jasper Avenue, Edmonton (Suite 700 – 7th Floor)

Participants:

Elisabeth Ballermann, President, Health Sciences Association of Alberta
Gil McGowan, President, Alberta Federation of Labour
Guy Smith, President, Alberta Union of Provincial EmployeesHeather Smith, President, United Nurses of Alberta
Marle Roberts, President, Canadian Union of Public Employees-Alberta

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MEDIA CONTACT:

Olav Rokne, AFL Communications Director at 780-289-6528 (cell) or via email [email protected].

Backgrounder_Labour Coalition on Pensions 2013Sep15

Edmonton – Expressing their grave concern about the still-unknown contents of the Alberta government’s pension policy announcement tomorrow, the presidents of Alberta’s four largest public service unions and the Alberta Federation of Labour (AFL) said today that their members’ retirement savings plans are sustainable, affordable, modest and fair.

There is a crisis in retirement savings for middle class Canadians, “but it is not the crisis that has been cooked up by right-wing lobby groups,” said the joint statement by Health Sciences Association of Alberta president Elisabeth Ballermann, Alberta Union of Provincial Employees president Guy Smith, United Nurses of Alberta president Heather Smith and Canadian Union of Public Employees Alberta president Marle Roberts.

“The real crisis is the retirement security disaster faced by tens of thousands, possibly millions, of middle-class taxpayers in Alberta and throughout Canada who don’t have workplace pensions,” said their statement (see attached), read by AFL president Gil McGowan in front of Government House, where Alberta Finance Minister Doug Horner will make his pension announcement tomorrow.

“The solution to the real retirement crisis is staring us in the face,” the four union leaders said. “It is not to attack the retirement savings of working Canadians or to raise the age at which they can retire, but to provide a fair publicly administered pension plan for all.”

The joint statement on pensions emphasized the sustainability of all of Alberta’s current public service pension plans. “As we speak, thanks to the contributions made by plan members, these plans are returning to full funding, where they stood in the 1990s.”

The contributions made by members and employers represent savings from members’ pay, the leaders noted, adding that payouts to members tend to be very modest – the average yearly pension paid to members of the PSPP is currently $12,414 and the average pension paid to members of the LAPP is $14,958.

“These modest retirement incomes constitute the life savings of plan members,” the statement said. “They are a huge benefit to the Alberta economy because most of the retirement income of middle class Albertans is spent right here in our own Alberta communities.”

The leaders expressed their concern that, pushed by aggressive lobbying by right-wing groups, there is a risk the pensions of approximately 300,000 of their members and former members may become a political football for a government that feels the need to re-establish its conservative image to confront the Wildrose Party Opposition.

None of the stakeholder groups representing plan members – who are technically supposed to be equal partners in the plan – have been informed of what Horner intends to announce tomorrow to the public, media and plan participants.

Horner’s stakeholder meeting is scheduled to take place from 9 a.m. to noon, Monday, September 16 at Government House.

AFL Backgrounder: Labour Coalition on Pensions Backgrounder

MEDIA CONTACT:

Olav Rokne, Communications Director, Alberta Federation of Labour at 780.289.6528 (cell)
or via e-mail [email protected]