On July 7, 2020 Alberta’s United Conservative Party government introduced Bill 32, a broad-ranging piece of legislation that eliminates important employment standard protections and attacks the ability of unions to represent their members and achieve better working conditions. The legislation is designed to ease the “regulatory burden on employers”. Limits on child labour, requirements to pay out severance or overtime are some of the things that the legislation takes aim at. When it comes to unions, the Bill includes new restrictions limiting a union’s ability to briefly stop picket line breakers (aka scabs) and engage in secondary site picketing. The Bill also seeks to cripple the ability of unions to advocate on social justice, political and other issues, in a disturbing echo of the failed Bill C-377 which Stephen Harper’s government introduced in 2015 and anti-union legislation popular in some parts of the United States. Unions have been key critics of the UCP’s lurch to the right since its election and this measure is seen as an attempt to muzzle criticism of their far-right agenda.
Bill 32 will require unions to report spending on “political activities and other causes” including “general social causes or issues” and “any activities prescribed by the regulations”. Spending on any of these issues will be subject to an American-style opt-in system. Presumably the UCP hopes “political activities” includes opposition to slashing health and safety protections during a global pandemic and that “general social causes” captures protests against cuts to already-overworked front-line health care staff.
Despite claims of “balance” Bill 32 contains no similar obligations on companies. There is no requirement that employers identify to shareholders what portion of their annual budget is focused on anti-worker advocacy and no right for shareholders to withdraw their capital from promoting the UCP’s privatization agenda. Corporations remain unimpeded in their advocacy and, similarly there is no option for members of the public to opt out of paying UCP political staff salaries while they spin narratives on twitter.
That the UCP felt it was time to institute Bill 32 just as it uses the shadow of a global pandemic to move fast on its most aggressive policy moves comes as no surprise. While public attention is focused on how to deal with COVID19, the government moves to weaken its critics, weaken workers’ rights and strengthen the hand of corporate employers with fewer workplace regulations. Polling indicates that Albertans are not happy with how Jason Kenney and his government have handled the response to COVID19. In introducing the Bill, UCP ministers and staffers repeated tired clichés of “big union bosses”, seeking to undermine the voice of workers engaged in participatory democracy.
Whether the UCP will be successful in pushing their message out is uncertain. What is certain is that Bill 32 will lock the Alberta government up in yet more Charter litigation against working people. All this at a time when the focus should be squarely on ensuring the needs of all Albertans are being met.
This post is for general information only and does not comprise legal advice.