Albertan health care workers staged a wildcat strike on Monday in response to Conservative plans to privatize 11,000 jobs in the midst of a pandemic. What began as a rally in opposition to the cuts turned into some limited job action, transforming what may have passed as an informational picket into an illegal or wildcat strike.
Under Alberta’s Labour Relations Code, as in British Columbia, a strike occurs where there is a work stoppage, a refusal to work, or a refusal to continue to work.
In Alberta and in British Columbia, generally a strike is only legal where:
1) There is no collective agreement in force;
2) A strike vote has been conducted with a majority favouring the strike;
3) Strike notice has been provided in accordance with the Code; and,
4) Timelines for a dispute inquiry board, if any, are complied with.
As the healthcare workers in this situation are considered “essential service workers” under the Code, the striking workers were also required to have an essential services agreement in place prior to engaging in a strike.
Ultimately after finding evidence that workers had failed to show up for, or walked off the job during, their shifts, the Alberta Labour Relations Board deemed the strike illegal, ordered the workers to return to work, and required AUPE to notify its members of the directive. Interestingly, the Labour Relations Board’s directive does not appear to include factual findings that the workers were doing so “in combination or in concert” and to “compel their employer”, which are requirements under the definition of strike in Alberta.
The last major wildcat strike in Alberta was in 2013, when jail guards walked off the job over safety concerns largely linked to the opening of a new correctional centre in Edmonton. That strike, which spread throughout the province and involved police being called in to oversee prisoners, ended with AUPE facing mounting six-digit daily fines for contempt of court, including an order that they post messages to their website discouraging their strike. That order was ultimately struck down as unconstitutional. The then-Progressive Conservative government, apparently feeling that the existing fines had not worked, passed legislation increasing fines to at least $250,000 at the same time it forced contract extensions on public sector unions. Ultimately that legislation was repealed without being proclaimed in the face of ongoing rallies and Charter challenges.
In the 2013 wildcat strikes, a great deal of focus was paid on AUPE’s role in the process and on a potential obligation to the wildcat strikes, as well as its role and liability for encouraging striking members. On Monday, AUPE President Guy Smith made it clear that, while AUPE supported its members’ right to strike the strike was not authorized by the Union and followed with a statement on Monday night that it would notify its members of their obligation to comply with the Labour Relations Board’s directive. The Board’s directive notes that the Government’s application against AUPE, presumably for questions about its role in encouraging or organizing the strike action, will be dealt with at a later time.
This week’s strikes, which come just on the heels of Premier Jason Kenney’s health care privatization plans as well as the regressive and anti-union Bill 32, are likely just the start of things to come in Alberta.