Did Premier Jason Kenney really think cutting his political staff’s salaries by seven per cent today would distract from the 11,000 frontline health-care jobs he devastated only two days ago?
Or the wage top-ups he’s failed to provide essential workers who continue to show up for the province through the pandemic?
Or the cuts to drug coverage for seniors and the chronically ill? The AISH benefits he plans to snatch up? The mass evictions he's potentially planning for persons with disabilities?
Or was he just hoping our hardworking members would fall in line, take a pay cut, and sacrifice themselves for his corporate welfare?
Here’s the thing, Jason: As a union – as a family –AUPE members are always striving to improve their own working conditions, so they can raise the bar for every working Albertan.
We don’t stoop to this government’s level. When one of us is pushed to the ground, we help each other up, so we all stand tall.
You might say this salary cut is in solidarity with the public. But the truth is, this is a dangerous publicity stunt. It’s not standing with Albertans, it’s competing with them in a race to the bottom, right after you’ve attacked one of their most vital public services.
Albertans deserve better than your cheap tricks, distractions and attacks on our way of life. If the UCP cabinet wanted to create a fair province, where every hard-working person can succeed, they’d stop their corporate tax-handouts for their super-rich buddies and invest in the public programs that all our families desperately need right now. They’d push for higher wages, so working people can afford mortgages, groceries and daycare. That’s the Alberta that everyday people, like our members, are fighting for. And when we fight, we win.
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