ALF V1

Two-Tier Minimum Wage

• lberta's poorly written two-tier minimum wage system is open to abuse by employers who are taking advantage of these laws to rip off the lowest-paid workers in Alberta. West End Swiss Chalet is one example. For more information see Aug 31 AFL release and backgrounder

AFL's 100 Years

• sure to have a look at our insert in the Edmonton Journal on Friday, August 31, 2012 – a special Labour Day message from Gil McGowan and a 10 page special on the past and present struggles of workers in Alberta.

Government trying to erase agricultural workers by no longer reporting farm fatalities

• The Alberta government's decision to stop reporting farm fatalities is an attempt to move the issue to the back burner and off the public radar. Farm workers are already left unprotected under health and safety regulations. For more information see Aug 20 AFL release.

Government documents reveal source of Harper's low-wage agenda

• nternal federal government documents show the source of Harper's low-wage agenda. Last year, a select group of CEOs and other business leaders were invited by the federal Conservatives to an annual closed-doors conference where they urged the Tories to adopt measures to reduce the pay of Canadian workers, limit union power by enacting U.S.-style right-to-work legislation, and allow two-tier health care. For more information...

 AFL shows government using bogus labour-shortage figures

• The government is using bizarre calculations to show a catastrophic "labour shortage" even though their own figures show a labour surplus for every year until 2021. The AFL revealed that the government's own figures show the supply of labour exceeding the demand for labour – a labour surplus – well into the future. For more information see July 25 AFL release and backgrounder

New Study shows billions in lost royalty revenue after Northern Gateway

• he Alberta Federation of Labour (AFL) and Parkland Institute released a study showing Albertans will let billions slip through their fingers if the Northern Gateway Pipeline is approved and constructed. If Alberta met royalty targets in place when Lougheed was Premier, the province would have $1 trillion in the Heritage Fund by 2039. For more information... see Aug 9 AFL release and backgrounder

Statement from Gil McGowan on the proposed takeover of Nexen by the China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC)

• Does it matter who owns the oil sands? You bet it does!" explains AFL president Gil McGowan. "If foreign governments are allowed to expand in Alberta through companies like China National, they'll develop the oil sands in their own best interest, not in the best interest of Canadians." For more information...July 24 AFL release

Urgent Action

UFCW 1118 workers on strike for fair wages and working conditions

• FCW 1118 sisters and brothers at Lilydale Foods' North Edmonton shop are on strike for wages comparable to those in other Lilydale plants. The employer refuses to pay wages on par with other Lilydale plants despite the fact that these workers work harder by handling larger and heavier poultry. The employer has cut the number of workers on the floor, meaning those left on the floor have to work harder while their wages have remained the same. Workers are also asking for a guaranteed minimum number of hours per week. There are about 200 workers on strike in shifts of about 75. Support these workers on the picket line at 127 Avenue and 76 Street in Edmonton. Pickets will be going in shifts between Monday and Friday, 6:00 AM and 6:30 PM.

Events

September 3: EDLC Labour Day BBQ

September 3: Labour Day

September 5: Official Opening Historical Display, Alberta Provincial Museum

September 7: AFL Education Committee

September 8: World Literacy Day

September 10: AFL Women's Committee

September 11: AFL WOCAW Committee

October 1: AFL Pride and Solidarity Committee

October 2-3: AFL Executive Council

October 8: Thanksgiving

October  14-17: CEP National Convention

October 17: National Day for the Eradication of Poverty

October 18: Persons Day

November 23-25: Parkland Fall Conference

January 14-19, 2013: AFL Weeklong School

Issue:  UFCW 1118 on strike/lockout for fair wages and working hours since Saturday, August 25, 2012.

Actions Requested:  Support your sisters and brothers on the picket line at 127 Avenue and 76 Street in Edmonton.

When:  Pickets will be going in shifts between Monday and Friday, 6 a.m. and 6:30 p.m.

Backgrounder:  UFCW 1118 workers at Lilydale Foods’ North Edmonton shop are on strike for wages comparable to those in other Lilydale plants. The employer refuses to pay wages on par with other Lilydale plants despite the fact that these workers work harder by handling larger and heavier poultry. The employer has cut the number of workers on the floor, meaning those left on the floor have to work harder while their wages have remained the same. Workers are also asking for a guaranteed minimum number of hours per week. There are about 200 workers on strike in shifts of about 75.

AFL’s Position:  The AFL is asking union members to support the striking workers by joining them on the picket line whenever possible - the picket line runs every day from 6 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.

Action:  Support your sisters and brothers on the picket line at 127 Avenue and 76 Street in Edmonton.

Key contact at the AFL:  Tony Clark, 780-218-5281 (cell)

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.

Gil McGowan, President of the Alberta Federation of Labour

Good evening and thank you all for coming.

We've organized this rally tonight to send a message to Telus. And based on the size of the crowd tonight & it's a very strong message.

As many of you know, our rally here in Edmonton is just one of three big rallies being held tonight in support of locked-out Telus workers.

Right at this moment, union members and union supporters are also gathering outside the Telus tower in Calgary and the Telus' headquarters in Burnaby in B.C.

These rallies are the culmination of a week of hard work by the TWU, the Alberta Federation of Labour and the B.C. Federation of Labour.

Over the past few days, our two federations have convened meetings of almost all the major unions in Alberta and British Columbia.

Yesterday afternoon, for example, leaders from dozens of unions gathered at the AFL office.

We had leaders from the United Nurses of Alberta. The Canadian Union of Public Employees. The Communication Energy Paperworkers. The Health Sciences Association of Alberta. The United Food and Commercial Workers.

We were also joined by construction trades unions like the Carpenters, the Plumbers and Pipefitters, and the Electrical workers and by independent unions like CSU 52 and NASA from the University of Alberta.

Similar meetings have been held in Vancouver and Victoria.

The result of all these meetings is that, starting today, under the banners of the AFL and BCFL, we'll be launching a two-province, multi-union campaign of support for locked-out Telus workers.

Our campaign will be coordinated. It will be sustained. And it will be escalating.

The key to our campaign will be our members.

Here in Alberta, we have 120,000 union members from 29 unions affiliated to the AFL.

We also have support from building trades unions representing 40,000 workers and from various independent unions representing nearly 100,000 workers.

All tolled, here in Alberta, we have enlisted the support of unions representing about 250,000 workers.

And it's not just us. In B.C. Federation of Labour has signed up unions representing nearly 500,000 workers.

Telus may think they're taking on one union representing 13,000 workers. But they've miscalculated.

Starting today, they're going to up against the full weight of the entire labour movement in two provinces.

Together, we represent hundreds of thousands of working people and their families - and that means hundreds of thousands of Telus customers or potential customers.

We're going to show them that the flip side of union power is consumer power.

The first component of our campaign will be the leaflet that is being circulated through the crowd tonight.

It's just one piece of paper & but it carries a powerful message.

Our members have been asking what they can do to support you. Now were giving them the information they need.

At this point, we are NOT asking people to boycott Telus services.

Instead, we will be asking our members to do three things.

First, we're asking people to discontinue some of their Telus land line services. And the leaflet tells people how to do that.

Second, we're asking people to discontinue some of the cell phone services. And the leaflet tells people how to do that.

Finally, we're asking people to report service complaints to the CRTC so we can demonstrate that Telus managers are lying when they service has not been disrupted.

The unions who have signed up for our campaign are not just giving passive support. They have committed to get these leaflets out into the hands of their members.

Your message will be mailed, faxed, and e-mailed to hundreds of thousands of people.

And this is just a start. We've got more ideas up our sleeves. This is just the first shot across Telus' bow - it won't be the last.

At this point, I'd just like to say a few words about our friend Darren Entwhistle.

In the days before this lock-out began, he was talking tough.

He told the media and he told investors that he was going to bust the union. And he said the first place he was going to break you was here in Alberta.

Well, we're here tonight to say show the world that Entwhistle was wrong.

This line is solid. Telus workers are solid. TWU is solid. The Alberta labour movement is solid.

And you know what? It's not just union members who Entwhistle has misjudged. He also misjudged other Albertans.

We don't take kindly to what this man, this Rambo CEO, has done.

In five or six short years, he's taken a company that was built largely with taxpayers dollars, a company that had a proud history of service, a company that had a long record of positive labour relations and he's poisoned it.

He's poisoned customer service and he's poisoned the work environment.

So tonight, we're here to say that we want a fair contract for telus workers. But we're also here to say, "we want our company back!"

For me, this is all kind of personal.

My Dad worked in this tower for nearly 25 years. I was an AGT kid.

Unlike Mr. Entwhistle, my dad was never a millionaire. But he was proud of the work he did.

He had a good union job. And, as a result, he was able to pay the mortgage and raise a family. He was able to plan for his retirement and even have a little left over to take me and my brothers on a few vacations.

That's what this dispute is really about. It's about defending family sustaining jobs, community sustaining jobs.

Telus makes its money here, in our towns, in our cities, from our citizens.

As a result, it has an obligation to give something back by investing here and maintaining good jobs here.

But Mr. Entwhistle's contract - the one he's tried to ram down you throats - would allow him to contract out jobs, to strip benefits, to send work down to the southern United States or to the Phillipines.

Tonight we're here to say "no" to this kind of corporate irresponsibility. We're here to say "no way" to the Entwistle way.

I'd like to conclude tonight with two promises and a predication.

On behalf of the Alberta Federation of Labour, our Executive, our members and affiliates, I promise that you will not stand alone.

We will be with you for however long it takes to get the kind of fair agreement you deserve.

We also promise that we will use our people power to make Telus feel the heat.

As far as my predication goes, let me say this.

The problem with this company has never been the workers. And the problem is not your old contract. The real problem is Darren Entwhistle and his Rambo-style management.

Through our collective efforts, and by keeping your picket line strong, we're going to help Telus investors see the light.

And six months from now, I predict that you'll be back at work with a negotiated contract. And Darren will where he should have been three years ago - out of work!

Together we can make it happen. Thanks for coming. Solidarity!

Numerous trucks and employee vehicles were kept out of the Safeway distribution centre by striking workers on Labour Day, an act the Alberta Labour Relations Board deemed "unlawful" late Monday night.

The board ordered the picketers to only detain those who approach the picket line for as long as they need to explain the nature of the dispute.

They also directed the union to keep watch on the traffic buildup outside the north Edmonton centre and adjust their delaying of traffic to quell any potential snarls like the one experienced on Monday.

Members of the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 401 started picketing Monday at 6 a. m., after they served strike notice and the company locked them out.

The 350 workers planned to picket in three shifts over each 24-hour period to keep traffic from getting to the distribution centre and Lucerne ice-cream plant at 14040 Yellowhead Trail.

Work at the company's frozen food warehouse, at 11528 160 St., was also affected. Picketers stood, and at times sat in lawn chairs, in front of arriving trucks.

Bob Behrens, Safeway's director of distribution for Alberta, said the company initially fenced off all but the main truck entrance to the facility.

But as vehicles started to line up, and threatened to stick out onto the Yellowhead, Safeway reopened the other entrances. The picketers then spread out to block all entrances. One truck was let through, as well as some employees, but most were kept out.

Safeway told the board that dozens of trucks come into the centre daily with produce that has limited shelf life.

The board was still hearing the arguments of Safeway management and the union's lawyers at press time Monday.

Employees have been without a contract since December 2008, but a deal seemed imminent after company and union negotiators reached a settlement Aug. 26.

However, more than 70 per cent of union members rejected the settlement their union leaders supported.

Several picketing workers who voted against the deal said Monday that benefits for workers in the physically demanding jobs are still in dispute. As well, full-time workers do not want to add three hours to their current 37-hour work week because they suspect the company plans to announce layoffs.

"I don't want to see guys lose their jobs," said Travis Ozechowski, who has worked full-time for three years in the produce section of the distribution warehouse. "I'm a shop steward, so I've got to look out for everybody."

Workers knew going into the vote that this could be a long strike, he added.

Safeway has started hiring temporary workers to keep operations going during the strike and lockout. The company has advertised the temporary warehouse jobs at $18.41 an hour.

Noor Afridi, 36, applied for one of those temporary jobs Monday. He has a job with a security company, but he hasn't been getting enough shifts to pay his bills.

Afridi said he does have concerns about crossing the picket line during a strike, "but when you have financial pressure, that can take you anywhere."

The wage the company is offering to temporary workers is a sore point for Laura, a union member on the picket line who does not want her last name printed. She was hired a week and a half ago.

"I was hired at$14.86 an hour," she said. "They're going to get$18.41 an hour to take my job."

Hourly wages for the 350 workers range from about $14 an hour for a part-time employee up to $20 an hour for full-time workers, the union has said.

While the first day of picketing shut down work inside Safeway's distribution centre, the effects of the strike and lockout were felt about eight kilometres down the road.

Organizers of an annual Labour Day barbecue were scrambling to buy enough oranges Monday morning to feed the city's unemployed, who lined up across Giovanni Caboto Park, near 95th Street and 109th Avenue.

"We're a little short on oranges because of the strike at the Safeway," said Tom Olenuk, president of the Edmonton and District Labour Council, which organized the barbecue for Edmonton's jobless.

"Usually we get about 4,000 oranges, but because of the strike we only got about 1,000."

Thousands of people were expected to visit the park for the barbecue that has been feeding unemployed people on Labour Day for 20 years now, Olenuk said. It's an event organizers hoped would fade away eventually, he noted.

"Instead of getting smaller, it's gotten bigger."

The situation for unemployed people in this province is particularly dire because of poor coverage from Canada's employment insurance program, according to a newly released analysis from the labour council and the Alberta Federation of Labour.

That analysis shows the number of unemployed people in Alberta has doubled since October 2008, to almost 154,000, the labour groups said in a news release.

Edmonton Journal, Tues Sept 8 2009
Byline: Andrea Sands and Ben Gelinas

EDMONTON - While the first day of picketing shut down work inside a major Canada Safeway distribution centre and ice-cream plant in west Edmonton, the effects of the strike and lockout were felt just a few kilometres away.

Organizers of an annual Labour Day barbecue were scrambling to buy enough oranges Monday morning to feed the city's unemployed, who lined up across Giovanni Caboto Park, near 95th Street and 109th Avenue.

"We're a little short on oranges because of the strike at the Safeway," said Tom Olenuk, president of the Edmonton and District Labour Council, which organized the barbecue for Edmonton's jobless.

"Usually we get about 4,000 oranges, but because of the strike we only got about 1,000."

Thousands of people were expected to visit the park for free hotdogs, hamburgers, drinks, bananas and a limited supply of oranges during the barbecue that has been feeding unemployed people on Labour Day for 20 years now, Olenuk said. It's an event organizers hoped would fade away eventually, he noted.

"Instead of getting smaller, it's gotten bigger."

The situation for unemployed people in this province is particularly dire because of poor coverage from Canada's employment insurance program, according to a newly released analysis from the labour council and the Alberta Federation of Labour. That analysis shows the number of unemployed people in Alberta has doubled since October 2008, to almost 154,000, the labour groups said in a news release.

The employment insurance system that should be helping unemployed workers during the recession only pays them $1,591 a month in benefits, on average, the labour groups said.

Compared with workers in the rest of Canada, Albertans have to work the longest number of hours to be eligible for the shortest periods of benefits coverage, the analysis said.

"Clearly, we need to increase the benefits," Olenuk said.

About eight kilometres up the road from the Labour Day barbecue, members of the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 401 spent their Labour Day blocking traffic into and out of the Safeway distribution centre and Lucerne ice-cream plant at 14040 Yellowhead Trail. Work at the company's frozen food warehouse, at 11528 160th St., was also affected.

"They're just shunting trailers around in there," said Local 401 president, Doug O'Halloran, who joined workers on the picket line. "There's nothing going in or out of there today."

Union members also blocked several vehicles they said were carrying Canada Safeway managers trying to enter the warehouse and plant. People inside those vehicles did not want to speak to media.

Safeway workers started picketing Monday at 6 a.m., after they served strike notice and the company locked them out. The 350 workers are picketing in three shifts over each 24-hour period to keep traffic from getting to the Safeway buildings.

The workers have been without a contract since December 2008, but a deal seemed imminent after company and union negotiators reached a settlement Aug. 26.

However, more than 70 per cent of union members rejected the settlement supported by union leaders.

Several picketing workers who voted against the deal said from the picket line Monday that benefits for workers in the physically demanding jobs are still in dispute. As well, full-time workers do not want to add three hours to their current 37-hour work week, several workers said.

That's because workers suspect the company's goal in adding the hours is to announce layoffs, said Travis Ozechowski, who has worked full-time for three years in the produce section at the grocery retailer's distribution warehouse.

"I don't want to see guys lose their jobs," Ozechowski said. "I'm a shop steward, so I've got to look out for everybody."

Workers knew going into the vote that this could be a long strike, he added.

Safeway has started hiring temporary workers to keep operations going during the strike and lockout. The company has advertised the temporary warehouse jobs at $18.41 an hour.

Noor Afridi, 36, applied for one of those temporary jobs Monday. He has a job with a security company, but he hasn't been getting enough shifts to pay his bills.

Afridi said he does have concerns about crossing the picket line during a strike, "but when you have financial pressure, that can take you anywhere."

The wage the company is offering to temporary workers is a sore point for Laura, a union member on the picket line who does not want her last name printed. She was hired a week and a half ago.

"I was hired at $14.86 an hour," she said. "They're going to get $18.41 an hour to take my job."

Hourly wages for the 350 workers range from about $14 an hour for a part-time employee up to $20 an hour for full-time workers, the union has said.

Edmonton Journal, Mon Sept 7 2009
Byline: Andrea Sands

EDMONTON - Today's news that Maple Leaf Foods is abusing temporary foreign workers at its poultry plant in Edmonton and attempting to use them as pawns to drive wages down is yet another demonstration of the failures of the temporary foreign worker program.

It's also an indictment of campaigning federal politicians who won't even acknowledge that a problem exists, says the president of the Alberta Federation of Labour.

"The Temporary Foreign Worker program is run by the federal government - but not a single one of the federal leaders has made problems in the program an issue in this campaign," says Gil McGowan.

"Instead, the issue is being driven under ground, just like these workers. It's a dark and ugly corner of federal bureaucracy that deserves to have some light shed on it. I can't think of a better time to do that job than during an election campaign. Unfortunately, people like Prime Minister Stephen Harper don't seem to agree."

Earlier today, the union representing striking workers at the Maple Leaf poultry plant released information showing that many of the 98 temporary foreign workers in the plant were promised wages of $15 - only to receive much less when they actually started working.

The union also said the company was housing as many as 17 temporary workers in individual duplexes and that more TFWs were brought in as a strike was looming in an obvious (and illegal) effort to undermine the bargaining position of the union and the workers it represents.

"This strike highlights the dangers of the temporary foreign worker program," says McGowan. "Workers are brought in by companies like Maple Leaf to work in unacceptable conditions, at low wages, and these workers are frightened that if they complain, they will be deported."

Despite their precarious situation - and the fact that they are obviously being used as pawns to keep wages low - McGowan points out that over 80 of the TFWs at the plant are actively supporting the strike.

McGowan says that if precarious workers such as these can find the courage to stand up and speak up, then surely our federal leaders could do the same.

"We're in the final week of a federal election campaign and we need an open and public debate to address the failures of this program," says McGowan. "The political parties need to take a stand and tell voters how they will prevent the creation of a permanent underclass of guest workers in Alberta and Canada."

In a further effort to pressure the federal parties to start talking about Canada's TFW problems, the AFL has joined with its national counterpart, the Canadian Labour Congress, to recognize October 7 as the World Day for Decent Work (www.wddw.org), which is being marked with activities across the globe.

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For more information call:

EDMONTON (CP) _ Striking workers at a century-old Molson Canada brewery will continue to picket despite the company's decision to shut the plant down, say union officials.

''The closure is for Aug. 31, so we're still going to keep the line and hopefully get more support,'' Garth Sanderson, president of Canadian Auto Workers Local 284, said Wednesday.

A total of 136 employees, 102 of them unionized, will lose their jobs. Many had tears in their eyes as they emerged from a meeting with company officials at a hotel where they talked about severance packages.

''There was a lot of venting because it's a shock,'' said Doug Smith, 50, who has spent 29 years with the company.

''We got nothing out of that meeting. It's all got to be negotiated with the union. We basically got no answers,'' said the burly man, his eyes moistening as he considered a lengthy career that's suddenly come crashing down around him.

Tully Lutz, 38, has worked at the Edmonton plant since 1991. He said there's a ''poison'' moving through corporate North America that is forcing lower wages on working people.

''People are going to be working for way less money down the road and not being able to live. All these guys are going to sit up in their mansions and play little Monopoly games with people. It's crazy,'' he said.

Relations with employees began to deteriorate, Tully said, after Montreal's Molson Inc. merged in 2005 with Adolph Coors Co. Molson Canada is now part of the Molson Coors Brewing Co. (TSX:TAP.B) based in Golden, Colo.

Daniel Pelland, the company's chief brewing officer, acknowledged it was a tough decision to close the plant and even tougher meeting with workers.

''There are a lot of questions about 'what's going to happen to me?' and 'I've been 30 years with the company' so we said: 'Look, those are the questions we need answered,''' he said.

It's now up to the union to negotiate details of severance agreements on behalf of the workers, Pelland said _ something he hoped would start as soon as possible.

Union officials said they are seeking legal advice on how to proceed with negotiations.

The Alberta Federation of Labour issued a statement in support of the workers.

''The American-based Coors Molson Co. is closing a profitable, efficient, award-winning plant with no consideration of long-term employees here in Alberta,'' said federation president Gil McGowan.

''So next time Albertans hear the ''I am Canadian' rant on a Molson ad, don't believe it. With the layoff of the last Alberta Molson workers, there is little reason for Albertans to drink Molson products.''

The company blamed the closure partly on the loss of a contract earlier this year with Foster's Group Ltd., a move that resulted in Molson Coors taking a US$24.6-million charge.

Another reason was a growing consumer preference for cans over bottles, said Pelland. The Edmonton brewery produced only the latter.

In Canada, about 65 per cent of the company's suds end up in bottles and 25 per cent in cans, but consumers are increasing the demand for canned brew _ especially in Western Canada, he said.

An impasse in contract talks with the union local in Edmonton and higher freight costs at the city's bottling plant also factored into the company's decision, Pelland said. Union members walked off the job May 30.

''It's always the balance about the location, freight and costs.''

Pelland said the company is not sending a message to the rest of its estimated 3,000 workers across Canada.

''We got some good relations with our other unions and we need to work with them to develop our plans to move forward,'' he said.

Foster's cancelled its contract with Molson Coors in May, saying demand in the U.S. market had plunged 33 per cent between 2001 and 2006.

SABMiller plc is replacing Molson Coors as the brewer of Foster's under a 10-year licence agreement starting in November.

Earlier this year, Molson Coors CEO Leo Kiely said cost-cutting efforts and synergies after the merger of Molson and Coors were expected to yield savings of $175 million in 2008.

Canadian Press Newswire, Wed Aug 1 2007
Byline: Lisa Arrowsmith

Edmonton - The Alberta Federation of Labour is highly critical of the Molson Coors shut-down of its Edmonton plant announced yesterday afternoon.

"The American-based Coors Molson Company is closing a profitable, efficient, award-winning plant with no consideration of long-term employees here in Alberta," says AFL President Gil McGowan. "Their loyalty and hard work apparently means nothing to the American operators but numbers on a ledger sheet."

"So next time Albertans hear the 'I am Canadian' rant on a Molson ad - don't believe it," says McGowan. "With the lay-off of the last Alberta Molson workers, there is little reason for Albertans to drink Molson products."

McGowan was also critical of the removal of inter-provincial trade barriers that has allowed the Canadian brewing industry to collapse.

"This plant closure is part of an ongoing series of shut-downs of breweries in the province," says McGowan. "The collapse of the Alberta brewing industry and the loss of hundreds of good jobs is the other side of the drive to free trade between provinces that the Alberta government so strongly endorses."

McGowan points out that Alberta and other Canadian provinces each had thriving brewing industries when regulations prohibited the transport of beer across provincial boundaries.

"Molson alone used to have three breweries in Alberta," says McGowan, "But as of today there is only one major plant left - the Edmonton Labatt Brewery."

"Albertans have lost great jobs with no real gain in consumer prices," says McGowan. "Where is the benefit to the province in that product of free trade?"

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For more information call:

Gil McGowan   AFL President  @  780.218.9888

CALGARY -- This may be the summer of unrest in the West, as thousands of municipal and forestry workers have walked off the job in British Columbia and thousands more tradespeople and paramedics in Alberta have voted to strike.

The labour disputes come amid red-hot economies in both provinces, which have driven up corporate profit and the cost of living along with it.

Gil McGowan, president of the Alberta Federation of Labour, said that nobody (employers especially) should be surprised by the demands for wage increases coming on the heels of almost two decades of recession, budget cuts and stagnant pay.

"Now we find ourselves in the boom, so workers are doing exactly what should be expected: They are trying to get their fair share of the growing economic pie," he said.

"If workers can't make substantial gains during economic boom times like we're currently enjoying in Alberta, when can they?"

Yesterday, the debt-free Alberta government moved to quash the discontent among Calgary's more than 400 emergency service workers, who pledged to hit the picket lines tomorrow after an overwhelming 99 per cent of members voted to strike.

Alberta Employment Minister Iris Evans said the cabinet declared a public emergency to avert the strike and will announce a tribunal to force both sides into an agreement.

The Canadian Union of Public Employees, which represents paramedics, pointed out that its Calgary workers make less than their counterparts in Toronto, Ottawa and Winnipeg, where inflation is not nearly as pronounced.

Meanwhile, B.C.'s $2-billion-a-year coast forest sector is at a standstill as 7,000 logging and sawmilling workers represented by the United Steelworkers set up picket lines on the weekend.

The union and industry are dug in over several issues, including shift scheduling and contracting out.

Coast forest workers last went on strike for three weeks in 2003. An arbitrated settlement that took effect in 2004 gave employers, among other things, more leeway in assigning shifts.

Companies say they can't give up flexibility on that front, asserting that market conditions - including a soaring loonie and a limping U.S. housing market - have only worsened in the interim.

The union says that employers are putting workers' health and safety at risk and that industry has failed to live up to promises to reinvest in the sector.

Most observers expect that strike to last the summer.

At the same time, about 6,000 civic workers in Vancouver and North Vancouver began job action last week in their bid to seal a new contract. Library staff in Vancouver launched rotating job action yesterday while garbage piled up and public washrooms were left untended.

A major issue is the length of contracts. The city wants a 39-month deal to run through the 2010 Winter Olympics, but union officials prefer a contract that won't leave them to bargain in a potential post-Olympic environment of cost overruns and cuts.

Relief may be coming to the suburb of Richmond, B.C., where about 1,200 union members reached a tentative deal yesterday, which will be put to a vote tomorrow.

However, labour officials in Alberta also confirmed that a massive majority of electricians, millwrights, pipefitters, boilermakers and refrigeration mechanics, who are members of five unions primarily involved in oil sands and construction projects, have voted to walk off the job.

The historic strike vote - the first in a quarter-century under the province's restrictive labour legislation - is aimed at kick-starting negotiations for the 25,000 workers, said Barry Salmon, a spokesman for the unions.

Wages and "quality of life" issues, such as work-camp conditions and the long commute for workers to Fort McMurray in northern Alberta, are the key issues, Mr. Salmon said. So is the length of wage contracts during a boom with no end in sight.

"There are members that are hesitant about accepting a wage offer for the year 2011," Mr. Salmon said, "Traditionally, wage contracts have been two years. This one, all the contractors for all the unions offered four. ... What's the cost of living going to be in 2011?"

Already this month, Alberta's nurses signed on to a three-year deal that would make them the highest-paid workers in their job category in Canada.

The province offered wage increases of up to 9.1 per cent more next year as a way to compensate for the soaring cost of living as well as to help with recruitment and retention.

The Alberta Federation of Labour's Mr. McGowan said any wage increases under 6 per cent would be a decrease in real take-home pay.

"If you pay people, they will come," he said.

The Globe And Mail, Page A8, Wed July 25 2007
Byline: Dawn Walton