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In what is again becoming a typical Alberta scene, workers, this time unionized nurses, protest Kenney Government policies at the Alberta Legislature last week. Image: David J. Climenhaga
Alberta union leaders summoned to provocative weekend 'consultation' by Kenney government
David J. Climenhaga | If Canadian charter rights stand in the way of the objective of silencing unions, Alberta's UCP seems prepared to bulldoze them.
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Alberta Finance Minister Travis Toews speaks about budget 2019. Image: Government of Alberta/Flickr
Plan to roll back Alberta public employees' pay is no surprise but seems unexpectedly inept
David J. Climenhaga | After a four-year respite, it looks as if the days of perpetual chaos in Alberta's health-care system are about to return with a vengeance.
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Alberta Finance Minister Travis Toews. Image: David J. Climenhaga
Are secret mandatory government orders the new face of public-sector bargaining in Alberta?
David J. Climenhaga | Big changes to public-sector bargaining introduced by Alberta's UCP government yesterday is likely to unleash a flood of litigation.
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Alberta Premier Jason Kenney. Image: Government of Alberta/Flickr
Why is Alberta launching an 'employee support program' for unionized workers?
David J. Climenhaga | If you have nothing better to do this afternoon, why not contact the ministry of red tape reduction and let them know about the duplication over at the ministry of labour?
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AUPE President Guy Smith addresses union members and supporters Wednesday in Edmonton (Photo: David J. Climenhaga).
Alberta government seeks leave to appeal injunction suspending Bill 9
David J. Climenhaga | Should the Appeal Court uphold the injunction, it will be interesting to see which is more important to the UCP: preserving the federal Tories' election chances, or pursuing their own radical agenda.
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Alberta Union of Provincial Employees President Guy Smith speaks wither reporters about Bill 9 earlier this month at the Alberta Legislature (Photo: David J. Climenhaga).
Injunction suspending application of Bill 9 leaves Kenney government with egg on its face
David J. Climenhaga | In the short term, this doesn't leave the government a lot of palatable options if it doesn't want to upset federal Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer's rickety applecart before October 21.
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Alberta Finance Minister Travis Toews holds a news conference yesterday in a hallway of the Legislature inaccessible to most members of the public (Photo: David J. Climenhaga).
The strategy behind the UCP's Public Sector Arbitration Deferral Act explained
David J. Climenhaga | The UCP won't risk passing legislation bad enough to become part of the federal election campaign in battleground Ontario until after the vote. Bill 9 buys time.
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Alberta Premier Jason Kenney and Labour Minister Jason Copping, in shirtsleeves. Photo: Screenshot of news conference
United Conservative Party introduces the Open for Fast Food Act -- sorry about the 13% pay cut, kids
David J. Climenhaga | Canadians don't elect Conservative governments to be empathetic. They elect them to squeeze people they resent. In this regard, the UCP is performing to specifications.
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Alberta Union of Provincial Employees President Guy Smith last night in the basement of Edmonton’s First Presbyterian Church, where public sector trade unionism got its start in Alberta 100 years earlier. Photo: David J. Climenhaga.
Yesterday marked a century of public sector trade unionism in Alberta
David J. Climenhaga | The struggle to protect the fundamental rights of working people to bargain collectively for their own good and the good of society continues today.
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Athabasca University campus. Photo: daryl_mitchell/Flickr
Athabasca University and its faculty approach impasse in bargaining
David J. Climenhaga | Forcing Athabasca University administrators to reach a contract their faculty can live with would serve the public interest and government's political interest. What's not to like about that?
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Finance Minister Joe Ceci, flanked by public service pension members, discussed Bill 27 at a press conference Tuesday (Photo: David J. Climenhaga).
Alberta's Bill 27 may not take the politics out of pensions, but it will certainly help
David J. Climenhaga | The Joint Governance of Public Sector Pension Plans Act will bring public service pension governance in Alberta into the Canadian mainstream.
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AUPE members on strike, in July 1980 in defiance of premier Peter Lougheed’s no-strike legislation (Photo: Alberta Union of Provincial Employees).
Alberta government and AUPE sign tentative agreement for three-year public service contract
David J. Climenhaga | While details are still scarce, this agreement with AUPE seems unlikely to give the opposition very much to get its critics' teeth into.