AUPE president decries Conservative plan to ban strikes by federal public employees
EDMONTON – The federal government’s planned three-year ban on strikes by federal public employees is a counterproductive policy that could be found to be in violation of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, says the president of the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees.
Direct employees of the Alberta provincial government and most Alberta health care workers have for years come under a similar provincial ban, said AUPE President Doug Knight in response to federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty’s announcement yesterday of a plan to ban strikes by federal public employees for a year.
“We have always argued that these Alberta policies are arbitrary and unfair and do not make good labour relations sense,” Knight said. “They don’t make sense here, and they won’t make sense when they are extended to our fellow public employees who work for the federal government.”
A significant part of AUPE’s Change-the-Law Campaign in 2007 was an effort to persuade the provincial government to overturn its unnecessary and unproductive blanket ban on strikes by direct government employees and public health care employees, Knight noted.
“It is sad to see the federal government extending these same bad ideas from Alberta to the national scene,” he said.
History clearly shows that blanket legislated bans on strikes do not prevent strikes, they only make them more volatile and harmful when they occur, Knight argued.
He cited research by Saint Mary’s University management faculty professors Larry and Judy Haiven in 2002 that shows health care and public sector workers will defy legislated strike bans if they are sufficiently angry and frustrated.
The Haivens’ research illustrated how legislated strike bans, dismissals and even jail terms for union leaders in the health sector did not prevent illegal strikes. They wrote: “Strikes happen! It matters not what form of law a government chooses to use to regulate industrial conflict in health care, industrial conflict occurs. Even outlawing strikes entirely (permanently or temporarily) does not prevent strikes from taking place. Even substantial fines and other penalties do not prevent health care workers from staying off the job.”
In recent years alone, the Haivens noted, illegal health sector strikes took place in Saskatchewan in 1999 and Alberta in 2000, and there were close calls in British Columbia and Nova Scotia in 2001.
Knight also argued that the federal policy is almost certainly a violation of the Supreme Court of Canada’s landmark ruling on June 8, 2007, that recognized free collective bargaining as protected by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
“Obviously the right to strike is essential to the free collective bargaining process,” said Knight. The Supreme Court ruled that interference with collective bargaining violates freedom of association, which is guaranteed by the Charter.
“Taxpayers may end up footing the bill for an attempt by the federal government to defend an unconstitutional policy,” Knight said. “That’s no way to save the taxpayers’ money.”
Instead of blanket strike bans, Knight said, AUPE recommends legislation that allows the right to strike but which includes provisions to fairly define limited essential services.
“This would ensure the minimum rights of working people as set out in the Charter of the United Nations and the Supreme Court of Canada’s definitive interpretation of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms,” he concluded.
For more information, contact:
Doug Knight, President, AUPE, 780-930-3301 or 780-265-6655 (cellular phone)
David Climenhaga, Communications Director, AUPE, 780-930-3311 or 780-717-2943 (cellular phone)