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The Alberta government is taking “undemocratic” steps to race a labour bill through the legislature to beat an arbitrator’s potential ruling on government workers’ wages, the province’s largest union says.

As the Opposition NDP accused the government Wednesday of taking unprecedented steps to “ram” Bill 9 through the legislature by the end of the week, the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees said it will meet with an arbitrator Friday and Saturday. That’s where the union will argue 23,000 front-line government employees deserve raises, AUPE president Guy Smith said Wednesday.

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The arbitrator could make a ruling as soon as Friday.

“That’s why they’re ramming it through,” Smith said. “They don’t want an independent third party, based on facts, to make a decision (about) front-line workers. I find that really quite disgraceful.”

The finance minister’s press secretary, Jerrica Goodwin, said Wednesday the government is “trying to maintain a reasonable and effective pace within the legislature.”