An application by a group of Licensed Practical Nurses for their jobs to be reclassified as part of Alberta’s Direct Nursing Care bargaining unit on the not-unreasonable grounds that direct nursing care is what they provide has been summarily dismissed by the Alberta Labour Relations Board. Calgary LPN Quintin Martin
Continue readingTag: labour relations
Alberta Politics: United Conservative Party Government tells Alberta nurses: Don’t worry, there’s no list, and you’re not on it!
VICTORIA, B.C. – Are you wondering why Alberta Health Services would threaten nurses with layoffs in the middle of an international nurse shortage and a national health care crisis at the very moment the province’s governing United Conservative Party is trying to reassure everyone things in health care are just
Continue readingAlberta Politics: The mystery of Bill 5: Is it part of the UCP’s covert ‘Free Alberta’ agenda or just a bit of administrative housekeeping?
Members of Alberta’s labour relations community were scratching their heads Monday and yesterday about Bill 5, the Public Sector Employer Amendment Act, 2023, last on the list of the first five bills to be introduced by the United Conservative Party in the new session of the provincial Legislature that began
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Mission Impossible, Conservative style: Making the B.C. port strike settlement look like a disaster for Justin Trudeau
Good morning, Mr. Poilievre, your mission, should you choose to accept it … Prime Minister Justin Trudeau (Photo: Justin Trudeau/Flickr). … is to make the settlement of the Vancouver port strike yesterday after less than two weeks look like a disaster for Justin Trudeau. This will not be easy. Indeed,
Continue readingAlberta Politics: News coverage of B.C. port strike unfolds according to the usual predictable, misleading formula
The strike by 7,400 longshore workers in Vancouver, Prince Rupert, Nanaimo and Port Alberni is no exception to the rule that news reporting of labour disputes impacting West Coast ports tends to unfold according to a predictable, misleading formula. An ILWU member mans a mobile picket Sunday in Vancouver Harbour
Continue readingThe Cracked Crystal Ball II: Let’s Talk About "Time Theft"
So, this morning, I woke up to find the lurid headline “What is Time Theft, and Why Are Some Employers So Worked Up About It?” on CBC. After reading it, I’m still spitting nails angry with the article and its suppositions. First, let’s start with the general idea of “time
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Something for Doug Ford to remember: Once in a while when you pull the cork from a bottle a genie pops out!
The Conservative movement’s vast army of online trolls has been strangely silent about the right of poorly paid Ontario education workers to negotiate a decent salary for themselves. Ontario Premier Doug Ford, encountering a stiff breeze (Photo: Premier of Ontario Photography/Flickr). Funny that, Conservatives being such lovers of Canadian rights
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Motion to debate mediator’s recommended contract sets stage for confrontation at Alberta Teachers Association meeting today
Delegates to the Alberta Teachers Association annual meeting in Calgary who agree with three former ATA presidents that a mediator’s recommended contract would be “wholly inadequate” hope to get a motion on the agenda this morning to have the assembly consider and debate the recommended settlement. ATA President Jason Schilling
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Three former Alberta Teachers Association presidents urge teachers to reject mediator’s recommended contract
Three former presidents of the Alberta Teachers Association have written a strongly worded open letter to Alberta public, Catholic and francophone schoolteachers throughout the province urging them to reject an “unacceptable” recommended settlement by a mediator in their current round of contract negotiations. Former ATA president Frank Bruseker, at right,
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Concordia University of Edmonton strike ends as faculty association members ratify new collective agreement
After 11 days on the picket line, members of the Concordia University of Edmonton Faculty Association have ratified a tentative agreement, ending the first strike by university faculty members in Alberta history. The agreement opens the door for classes to begin at the university on Wednesday, Jan. 19, the faculty
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Impact of UCP’s brutal post-secondary funding cuts sparks fear in University of Lethbridge’s Music Department
Faculty and students in the University of Lethbridge Music Department are fearful of the impact of a “drastic restructuring” of academic programs brought about by the Kenney Government’s brutal funding cuts to Alberta’s public post-secondary institutions in last February’s provincial budget. In a letter to published Saturday on the Lethbridge
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Private Edmonton university sees the first faculty strike in Alberta history – it likely won’t be the last
With labour disputes looming at three Alberta public universities in Alberta, it came as a surprise when the faculty association at a small private university in Edmonton became the first in Alberta history to walk off the job in a legal strike. But at 9 a.m. on Tuesday, some of
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Kenney Government suddenly backs away from long-brewing big battles with nurses and teachers
Alberta’s United Conservative Party Government has suddenly retreated from controversial battles with nurses and teachers that were a priority for Premier Jason Kenney and his inner circle almost since their election in the spring on 2019. Over the Labour Day weekend, a representative of the Alberta Health Services bargaining committee
Continue readingAlberta Politics: UCP walks back plan to end COVID testing; AHS ponders hiring expensive contract nurses while trying to cut staff nurses’ pay
Friday the 13th appears to have lived up to its unlucky reputation for Alberta’s Kenney Government. Even before the fateful date arrived yesterday, the United Conservative Party strategic brain trust had concluded it would be a good time to walk back its risky July 28 decision to ignore the Delta
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Nurses protest while Kenney Government doubles down on hard-line post-pandemic bargaining strategy
With nurses planning to spend much of the day marching on information pickets at health care worksites throughout Alberta to protest the Kenney Government’s effort to cut back their wages and gut their collective agreement, Finance Minister Travis Toews issued a statement yesterday morning that appeared to double down on
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Canada’s progressive politicians need to pay attention to Erin O’Toole’s pivot to unions
If Erin O’Toole was sincere when he surprised everyone last month by bemoaning the decline of unions, you’d think he’d publicly rebuke Premier Jason Kenney for his ongoing campaign to turn Alberta into a right-to-work state. So far, though, the new Conservative Party of Canada leader has had nothing to
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Arbitration panel rejects rollback demand, awards 1% raise to non-academic staff at eight small Alberta public colleges
It’s unlikely the United Conservative Party Government of Premier Jason Kenney was pleased when it got word Monday an arbitration panel had rejected an employer demand for a pay rollback and awarded support staff at eight smaller Alberta post-secondary institutions a 1-per-cent raise for the final year of their contract.
Continue readingAlberta Politics: UCP plan to lay off 11,000 public sector health workers sparks wildcat walkouts at 45 Alberta health facilities
Infuriated at the Kenney Government’s determination to lay off 11,000 public sector health care workers and privatize their jobs, members of the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees walked off the job in a province-wide wildcat strike yesterday morning. Last night, the Alberta Labour Relations Board ruled the work stoppage to
Continue readingAlberta Politics: UCP government announces massive health care layoffs at hastily called news conference
If you think this morning was a crazy moment for Health Minister Tyler Shandro to announce a major restructuring of public health care in Alberta, including the layoffs of 11,000 public health care workers, right in the middle of the most serious health care crisis in 100 years, you’re right.
Continue readingAlberta Politics: The UCP, in the middle of its war on doctors, picks a fight with nurses too
It seemed crazy for the United Conservative Party Government of Premier Jason Kenney to pick a fight with the province’s doctors in the middle of a pandemic. Still, if you believe the Roman proverb that fortune favours the brave and look at the world from Mr. Kenney’s ideological perspective, you
Continue reading