EDMONTON – Passage last night of Bill 12, the government’s so-called Education Services Settlement Act, can destabilize labour relations in Alberta, the president of the province’s largest union warned this morning.

"This is a step backward for labour relations in our province," said Dan MacLennan, president of the 48,500-member Alberta Union of Provincial Employees. "We should be trying to move ahead.

"This is a very bad law," MacLennan said. "In the long run all Albertans, not just school teachers, will be hurt by this law."

MacLennan said that AUPE’s experience since 1977 with the Public Service Employee Relations Act (PSERA), legislation that is in important ways similar to Bill 12, is that it does not provide a mechanism for the parties to resolve their bargaining issues.

The most important issues in contract negotiations are often not directly related to pay, MacLennan explained. He pointed to concerns of AUPE members that are directly comparable to the Alberta Teachers Association’s desire to address classroom size – heavy caseloads experienced by social workers, child-care workers and probation officers, hours of work, training and job classifications.

"Each of these issues have been of utmost importance to our members, often far more than how much they are paid," he said. "Each is an important employment and workplace issue. Each should be addressed through collective bargaining."

But because of PSERA – which like Bill 12 denies affected employees the right to strike and imposes compulsory arbitration – more often than not these issues cannot be resolved through collective bargaining.

"Our bitter experience is that if the law doesn’t let issues be dealt with in arbitration, employers will not address them at the bargaining table," he said. "Not dealing with such important concerns poisons the workplace environment.

"The problem with both Bill 12 and PSERA is that they don’t provide a mechanism for resolving the issues that are in dispute," MacLennan said. "Teachers are right to be both cynical and angry about this law.

"Even the Alberta Labour Relations Code, for all its perceived weaknesses, provides an arbitration option for the parties to deal with all bargaining issues in dispute," MacLennan observed.

"The message to working people with arbitration processes like these is that their only option is to break the law, and illegally strike, if their employers won’t negotiate in a fair and just fashion."

MacLennan also said the government’s policy of not allowing school boards to negotiate or an arbitrations board to arbitrate salary increases for teachers that would cause deficits in board budgets means there is no real collective bargaining.

"This is just dictating terms. Declaring that the $50 million saved during last month’s teachers’ strike won’t go to teacher settlements appears simply vindictive and mean-spirited," he added.

MacLennan also said it’s unfortunate some MLAs are putting the blame solely on the teachers. "A bad law is bad enough," he said. "Telling teachers they asked for it will sow bitterness and mistrust. Nothing good can come from that."


For more information, contact:
Dan MacLennan, President, AUPE, 780-930-3301 or 780-910-8392 (cellular phone)
David Climenhaga, Communications Director, AUPE, 780-930-3311 or 780-717-2943 (cellular phone)

Back to Releases