CALGARY—The Alberta government will ask for a two to five per cent pay cut when wage talks with public sector workers start up again on Oct 31, provoking outrage from union representatives.

Tens of thousands of public sector workers are set to continue negotiations with the government over pay later this month. Originally, the Alberta government’s arbitration mandate called for no increase to their pay, but Finance Minister Travis Toews said in a statement on Tuesday the government had changed course given the province’s growing debt and “the unacceptable deficit this government inherited.”

“We cannot ask Alberta taxpayers to fund public-sector pay raises during a time when far too many workers in the private sector have lost their jobs and many others have seen significant pay cuts in recent years,” Toews’ statement said.

The new mandate also includes the option of reopening collective agreements to negotiate wages in 2019. Toews later told reporters the decision would affect around 30 different arbitrations over the next several months, although he didn’t have an exact figure on the number of workers affected.

He said the exact proposed rollback varies from two to five per cent depending on the group and noted Tuesday’s statement is simply informing the government’s position heading into the arbitrations.

“Obviously, that won’t necessarily be the outcome, but again — given the fact that Alberta’s finances are in a challenging state and given the MacKinnon panel findings that our public sector remuneration packages are, in many cases, significantly higher than competitor provinces — we’ve adjusted our opening positions downward,” Toews said.

Guy Smith, president of the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees (AUPE), called the move a direct attack on the livelihoods of workers and their families, saying their members already took two years of zero increases. He said in a statement that Bill 9, along with the MacKinnon report and the recent budget, incensed AUPE members and their anger “is now in danger of spilling out into the streets.”

In a later interview, Smith added the decision by the Alberta government to post its starting offer for wage arbitrations publicly instead of working out the details in private was disconcerting.

“They’ve been unscrupulous and very aggressive and arrogant — and it almost looks like they’re trying to pick a fight with us,” Smith said.

He said government workers and those in Alberta Health Services feel totally disrespected by their employers for the work they do. AUPE members have been holding rallies since Bill 9 was introduced, Smith said. He said he expected to see an increase in protests going forward, but didn’t give any indication as to whether labour unrest would ensue.

“We’re putting it in the hands of the members because that’s how we operate,” Smith said about the possibility. “And they will determine how far they want to take this fight to protect our rights.”

Heather Smith, president of the United Nurses of Alberta, said in a statement that their union was told Alberta Health Services would be changing their position from no increases to a wage rollback of three per cent. While the union isn’t involved with bargaining, they do have arbitration scheduled for Nov. 22 and 23 — and expect it will proceed fairly.

“We expect to proceed on those dates, and we anticipate the employer will bargain in good faith as required by law and that the arbitrator will conduct himself in accordance with the law,” Smith’s statement said.

Bob Barnetson, an associate professor of labour relations at Athabasca University, said Tuesday’s rollback is fairly consistent with the United Conservatives’ rhetoric around needing to reduce public sector compensation.

“Whether that will have any actual traction with an arbitrator is pretty unknown,” Barnetson said.

Labour and Immigration Critic Christina Gray said the current United Conservative government has no respect for public sector workers and described Tuesday’s proposed wage cuts as “the first step to going to war” with correctional officers, nurses, teachers and janitors.

“This is an unwelcome return to the Conservatives’ old bullying tactic and it’s going to mean potentially broken contacts and labour unrest,” she told reporters on Tuesday afternoon.

Gray also disputed the notion of delaying wage arbitration talks until after the MacKinnon panel delivered its report through the use of Bill 9.

“The state of the economy was known at the time of the introduction of that legislation and it is in the same state now,” she said.

In his statement on Tuesday, Toews argued Bill 9’s delay of wage talks “gave us the clarity and information we needed to make prudent financial decisions that are in the best interests of all Albertans without continuing to pile up unnecessary and destabilizing debt.”

The public sector wage walks were supposed to wrap up far earlier than Oct. 31, but the United Conservatives’ Bill 9 deferred them until after the MacKinnon panel could analyze how to reduce government spending without raising taxes.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

AUPE applied for a court injunction to halt Bill 9, saying it impeded freedom of association charter rights. About 65,000 of their members had their arbitrations delayed. A judge initially ruled in their favour, but the injunction was later overturned by a three-justice panel from the Alberta Court of Appeal.

Barnetson expected unions will continue to fire up their membership over the rollbacks. He also said some provisions of the recently-passed Bill 21 could further stoke the anger of unionized workers.

“There’s probably going to be ugly public sector strikes next year,” he said.

Read more about: