EDMONTON – The decision to prohibit Alberta nurses from holding a vote on the latest contract offer from their employers proves that Alberta’s labour laws are seriously flawed, says the president of the Alberta Federation of Labour.
“There is something seriously wrong with a law that makes criminals out of people who are simply trying to defend their rights in the workplace,” says Audrey Cormack, president of Alberta’s largest union organization.
“Nurses and other health care workers in this province have been pushed to the brink by budget cuts and under-staffing. Now they face the prospect of being branded as criminals for having the audacity to fight for a better health care system. What’s really criminal here is the way the nurses are being treated by the regional health authorities and the provincial government.”
Cormack says Alberta’s labour laws impose more restrictions on the rights of workers to organize and bargain collectively than any other province.
“In a democracy, workers should not be forced to work against their will by threats of violence, fines or imprisonment,” she says. “But that’s exactly what’s happening in this case and in the case of all other public sector workers who are denied the right to strike. They are being denied a fundamental democratic freedom.”
Cormack says the health authorities and the provincial government are using Alberta’s labour law to avoid addressing the serious issues that nurses have brought to the table – like concerns over under-staffing, declining morale and inadequate compensation.
“The experience of the 1988 nurses strike proves that you can’t find solutions by imposing injunctions and levying fines,” says Cormack. “This kind of unnecessarily aggressive approach to bargaining won’t stop a strike and it certainly won’t do anything to address the crisis in our health care system.”
In the short term, Cormack says the solution to the problem lies with the provincial government. She says more money has to be given to the regional health authorities so they can hire more nurses and increase their compensation. In the long term, Cormack says something has to be done with Alberta’s labour laws.
“The labour laws in this province are backward and punitive. Far too many workers are being denied the right to strike – which is a fundamental democratic right recognized by the United Nations. Our leaders are going to have to acknowledge that criminalizing strike activity does nothing to solve problems in the workplace.”
For more information call:
Audrey Cormack, AFL President @ (780) 499-6530 (cell)