UNA President Heather Smith and other public service union leaders meet premier and senior ministers

United Nurses of Alberta President Heather Smith and representatives of other public sector unions met yesterday with Premier Jim Prentice at Government House in Edmonton.

Smith characterized yesterday’s private meeting with Prentice, Finance Minister Robin Campbell, Jobs, Skills, Training and Labour Minister Ric McIver, Health Minister Stephen Mandel and Education Minister Gordon Dirks as positive and respectful.

She expressed UNA’s support for the government’s decision, announced at the start of the meeting, to repeal Bill 45, the Public Sector Services Continuation Act, during the current sitting of the Legislature.

UNA has strongly opposed Bill 45, which was never proclaimed into law by the government after it was passed in December 2013. The union filed a statement of claim with the Court of Queen’s Bench in January 2014 arguing the bill violated fundamental freedoms protected by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

“We were very pleased the government took the positive and sensible step of moving to repeal this law without being forced to do so by the courts,” Smith said.

She noted Prentice was clear in yesterday’s meeting that the government does not intend to reopen unions’ collective agreements or to demand rollbacks during the term of those agreements.

“This is not about rolling back contracts,” Prentice told reporters during a news conference that followed the meeting. “It’s about working together to define solutions as we go forward that reflect the fiscal circumstances we’re in.

“We recognize that prior to my becoming the premier, contracts were negotiated, had been signed with different unions,” he said at the news conference. “Clearly they have to be respected. We cannot roll back what was previously agreed to.”

However, in his public comments after the meeting, Prentice did not entirely close the door on asking for “voluntary” wage freezes of rollbacks, saying only that yesterday’s meeting was not the right place for such a request.

“So we will have to wait and see and consider our responses at an appropriate time,” Smith said.

The presidents of four of Alberta’s major provincial public sector unions requested the meeting with Prentice last week to discuss his previously announced plan to establish a working group on improvements to how public-sector negotiations are conducted in Alberta.

However, Prentice used the opportunity to discuss a wider range of issues, including the government’s planned response to the ruling of the Supreme Court of Canada in January that all unionized Canadian working people, including employees of the public service, have a Charter-protected right to strike and the impact of low oil prices on the Alberta economy.

On the first issue, Smith said she advised the premier during discussions that if he is making changes to labour laws in light of the court’s decision, he should eliminate the prohibition on Nurse Practitioners being represented by a union that was included in legislation passed by the Legislature in 2003.

On the second, she reminded the premier that layoffs in the private sector are taking place because changes in the economy mean there is less work in some industries, but that the impact of a downturn is not the same in public service, especially health care. “The difference is that our work does not disappear. In fact, in health care, we face more demand for our members’ skills during a downturn.”