EDMONTON – Alberta Federation of Labour (AFL) Secretary Treasurer Karen Kuprys made the following statement in response to the UCP Government’s “consultation” on Bill 32: Restoring Balance in Workplaces Act (2020). A joint statement to the Government of Alberta from the AFL and five other organizations is attached as background.

“Bill 32 is an unfixable bill. Attempts at “consultation” are little more than window dressing.

“Unions are governed by their members. The UCP Government is trying to take both power and voice from workers by intruding on unions’ advocacy work. Ironically, a government that claims it wants to do away with ‘red tape’ has burdened unions with an unfathomable amount of it.

“Bill 32 needs to be scrapped immediately. Anything less than that is unacceptable to Alberta workers.”

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MEDIA CONTACT:
John Ashton
Director of Communications, AFL
Email: jashton@afl.org

BACKGROUND

The joint statement below is endorsed by the Alberta Federation of Labour, Unifor, Canadian Union of Public Employees Alberta (CUPE Alberta), United Nurses of Alberta (UNA), United Steelworkers District 3 (USW), and the United Food & Commercial Workers Local 401 (UFCW 401):

“The Bill 32 dues election provisions are an unnecessary government intrusion into the internal governance of our union, it creates the need for us to undertake and pay for processes that are not the choice of our membership. Section 26.1 of the Labour Relations Code and the related Regulation 260/2021, Election of Union Dues Regulation, should both be repealed. There is no need for the government to legislate or provide oversight regarding the private, internal operations of trade unions in Alberta in respect of how union dues are spent.”