AUPE President: Labour day a time to take pride in our work, strengthen our bonds
EDMONTON – As members of AUPE it is important that we recognize the value of our many contributions to Albertan’s lives as we mark Labour Day this Monday. Labour Day is more than the last weekend of the summer. It is a time for us to recognize both the value of the work we do for Albertans in our jobs, and the improvements we, as union activists, advocate for all working people.
The history of unions in Canada is one in which workers realized that by collectively recognizing and promoting their contributions to our society, they could push employers to do the same, with safe and fair working conditions, improved benefits and wages for their employees.
It was the “Nine Hour Movement,” a collection of organized workers that rallied for a nine-hour workday, which led to the grudging legal recognition of trade unions by the Canadian government in 1872, and the official recognition of Labour Day as a national holiday in 1894. AUPE has continued that tradition of union activism as a leading force advocating for improved health and safety laws for workers, protecting public services that benefit all citizens, pushing for improvements to our existing labour laws and fighting against efforts to erode the legal protections we have already earned.
For all of this we, as members of AUPE and as part of the wider union movement, can take great pride.
But we cannot allow ourselves to rest.
Prior to the Trade Unions Act of 1872, unions were officially considered criminal conspiracies in restraint of trade. While the laws have changed, those old attitudes still linger amongst employers who would gladly trade the rights of working people in the name of streamlined operations and an improved bottom line. In reality, the union movement has brought working people the right to collectively bargain, given employers a stable and reliable workforce, and fair labour laws that have improved the economy for all Canadians, rather than a select few.
While the rapid inflation of capital project costs have been accepted as the norm by government and businesses in our province, working people who face rapidly increasing costs of living must argue for every penny they need just to make ends meet.
This year we demonstrated our collective strength in rallies for health sector workers in every corner of the province, and by using our shared resources to remind Albertans in newspaper and television advertisements of the valuable, but often overlooked role we play in their everyday lives. I want to congratulate all of our members for their contribution to these efforts, and ask that each of us remember that all this was accomplished by working together for a common cause – the betterment of working people in our province.
Thank you, and enjoy your Labour Day.
Sincerely,
Doug Knight
President, AUPE