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As the economy failed and deficits piled up, the NDP promised time and again not to lay off public sector workers.

Some Albertans didn’t like that. Others felt it was fine, to a point, because there was no sense in adding to the jobless rolls.

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But there’s always been a feeling that in return, the unions should accept a pay freeze until the recession eases. That’s not a bad deal when the payoff is a job that’s still there when you wake up in the morning.

The big public sector unions don’t agree.

“I can tell you we will not be making proposals for a wage freeze, but we anticipate that employers might very well do that,” says Guy Smith, president of the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees.

Gil McGowan, president of the Alberta Federation of Labour, says unions “understand the government’s fiscal situation and will take account of that. They will be reasonable.”

But he argues that outside the energy sector, the economy is doing quite well and average wages are increasing. McGowan says public workers shouldn’t be denied reasonable increases.