“AUPE members have spoken loud and clear, they are opposed to this abusive bill that allows the legislative power of the state to crush their collectively-bargained rights,” said AUPE president Guy Smith.
Bill 9 erases the mutually-agreed to June 30 deadline to have third-year wage reopener arbitration held for more than 60,000 AUPE members who work on the front lines of provincial government services and for Alberta Health Services.
It also denies the rights of arbitration to more than 10,000 workers in post-secondary education and government boards and agencies.
“This is just the beginning of more attacks from an aggressive government on working people. We fully expect the UCP to use pre-determined outcomes from its hand-picked blue-ribbon panel to freeze or cut Alberta workers’ wages.”
The panel’s chair has previously called for two-per-cent rollbacks to public-sector pay and claims the government has the right to legislate rollbacks on unions.
“While AUPE is now exploring its legal options, members around the province are mobilizing and organizing protests on the ground against Bill 9,” said Smith.
“I haven’t seen this kind of anger from members in a long, long time. The breaking of their legal-contracts by the UCP has lit a fuse,” he added.
AUPE is Alberta’s largest union with more than 95,000 members province-wide.
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For more information:
Alexander Delorme, AUPE communications officer: 780-264-9274