The government is out to smash Alberta's unions

IWW Edmonton General Membership Branch, August 2002

While most workers in Alberta were on summer vacation, or planning their well deserved temporary break from wage slavery the Alberta Government without advance warning and very little fanfare announced that it would spend the next two months reviewing Alberta's Labour Relations Legislation.

As we the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) Edmonton branch predicted a year ago (see our May 2001 press release in the appendix below) this government is intent on bringing forth Right to Work legislation which was confirmed in June of this year when they issued their report from their Future Summit (See Labour News June 2002 article and exerpt from the Future Summit report in the appendix below).

Working people in Alberta can not be faulted for being suspicous that immediately following the release of the Summit reccomendations to Introduce balanced labour policies and ‘right-to-work’ legislation. De-unionize Alberta. the government announced its review of Labour Legislation. The fact this was done durning the summer, when most union offices are closed, and workers are on vacation, bodes ill for Alberta workers and their unions.

We think this could be a Trojan horse for the union busters in the province, says AFL President Les Steel. The people affected by the act—nionized employers and employees—have not been calling for a review any time soon. We think this is coming from people who hate unions on principle. (See appendix below) We agree as we warned in May of last year, regardless whether it is a private members bill, lobbying by the right wing think tanks like the Fraser Institute or the National Citizens Coalition (NCC), or reccomendations of the governments Future Summit, the right wing special intersts controlling the Alberta government want to smash Alberta's unions, forcing workers back to the dark ages and satanic mills of the 19th century.

The privatization and deregulation of Occupational Health and Safety, WCB and other labour boards. The firing of the labour friendly chairman of the Labour Relations board and his replacement with an employer representative who is also an advocate for merit shops in the construction industry during the Calgary Herald strike shows this government agenda is clearly anti-worker and anti-union.

Please check out the AFL website listed below and please respond by Sept. 15 with reccomendations to defend and expand workers rights and oppose the right wing Right To Work campaign to De-unionize Alberta.