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Alberta’s largest union will take the government to court over Bill 9, which passed in the house in the early hours of Thursday and will allow the United Conservatives to halt union wage negotiations.

Guy Smith, president of the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees, told Postmedia Thursday morning the government has created “a powder keg” with its Public Sector Wage Arbitration Deferral Act.

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“When the bill receives royal assent, we’ll be filing with the courts,” Smith said.

Members have already started organizing information pickets, which begin next week. So far they have been organized for health centres in Vegreville, Tofield, Lamont, Two Hills and Calgary, and at the Leduc hospital.

Smith said the list of planned action is growing longer by the day.

“This is a denial of worker’s rights and a violation of their constitutional rights for collective bargaining, because it’s very clear that something that was agreed to by both parties has now been taken away by the state using its full power to deny those rights,” Smith said.