News from the University of Calgary today (Monday, Nov. 18) that 250 jobs will be eliminated are proof of more broken promises from the UCP, says the Alberta Union Of Provincial Employees (AUPE).
“The UCP was elected on a promise of creating jobs, but now we are losing hundreds of positions at just one university. Imagine how many hundreds more will be lost at universities and colleges across the province,” says Bobby-Joe Borodey, vice-president of AUPE, which represents about 96,000 workers including some of those affected by these job cuts.
“The government also said most of the jobs it wanted to axe in the public sector would be through attrition. That’s another broken promise. The University of Calgary said today that 150 full-time positions would be terminated and 100 lost to attrition,” says Borodey.
“The Kenney government also said it wanted to have universities prepare students so they could succeed and help fuel Alberta’s future, but by eliminating these important positions, they are making it harder for students to succeed.”
AUPE members perform a number of tasks vital to the smooth running of post-secondary institutions including IT support, acting as student advisors, lab assistants and registrars, supporting research programs and performing building and infrastructure maintenance.
“The loss of these workers will have a direct impact on the education students receive. Combined with the soaring tuition fees and an increase in student-loan rates included in the budget, this is yet another broken promise,” says Borodey.
“What no one in the government has been able to explain is why these students and these workers should be paying the price for $4.7-billion in tax giveaways to already profitable often foreign corporations.
“This government clearly doesn’t care how many Albertans it hurts in its desire to give away our money to big business. The severely handicapped, the developmentally disabled, college students, schoolchildren, families, workers - just about everybody is being forced to pay for the government’s gifts. It’s Merry Christmas for big business, but misery for the rest of us.”
Borodey is available for comment.
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Terry Inigo-Jones, Communications, 403-831-4394