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It seemed to me that I was moving far from primarily discussing politics to now specializing in labour news. As an outcome, I rebranded once again in the spring of 2022 to highlight this emerging focus. Which's how The Alberta Worker was born. That summertime, I also launched the, where I speak with members of the working class about their life stories and their individual labour journeys.

Guiding minds

Now, let's get to the reason I am here today: labour rights, employee advocacy, and the existing landscape for Alberta's post-secondary employees. I finished from what is now Lethbridge Polytechnic in 2001. I finished their multimedia production programme, and my practicum wound up developing into a full-time task, where I worked for 9 years before being laid off during budget cuts thanks to frozen operating grants from the provincial government at the time.

Too, my first paid speaking gig was at Olds College. After my partner got her master's degree, one of the top places to hire her to teach was what was then Red Deer College. Needless to state, I have an unique place in my heart for the colleges and institutes in Alberta.

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Considering that the UCP took power in 2019 under Jason Kenney, they've introduced numerous pieces of legislation that have actually made things more tough for workers. The first modification was really introduced in their 2nd bill, the so-called Open For Company Act, which took result in the summertime of 2019. This expense lowered the minimum wage for student employees under 18 from $15 an hour to $13 an hour.

On top of that, they have not altered the adult minimum wage the whole time they have actually been in workplace, and now it's the most affordable base pay in the nation, for the very first time in over a decade. This is the second longest period considering that 1965 that Alberta base pay employees haven't seen a wage boost.

Prior to this expense becoming law, workers might bank their overtime hours at 1.5 times their worked hours. If somebody worked 3 hours, they could bank those 3 hours, and then when they desired to take it as time off, they might take 4.5 hours off rather of 3 hours.

After Expense 2 was passed, employers could give the banked time as straight time, which encouraged them to pay out overtime, rather than allow workers to take the additional time off. Finally, Costs 2 decreased statutory vacation pay, particularly for part-time and casual employees. Prior to the expense, workers received holiday pay despite whether they worked the holiday and despite whether the stat holiday fell on a set up workday.

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The list below year, the UCP government introduced Costs 32, otherwise called the Restoring Balance in Alberta's Workplaces Act. This new legislation required unions to now get specific consent from their members before they might use earnings gathered from charges for social or political causes. This increased the administrative concerns on unions, which implied additional costs, and it restricted their capability to use funds for advocacy for the broader working people.

Before, employees might hold an accreditation vote simply 10 calendar days after they applied to the Alberta Labour Relations Board for accreditation. This provides companies more time to unionbust.

Now, they can challenge procedural or technical concerns on the certification procedure itself, such as small mistakes in the application, supporting documents that were filed incorrectly, timing of the application, scope of which job titles are consisted of in the proposed bargaining unit, and whether the union used so-called coercion to gain support among the workers.

What to Expect from Local Education in the New Year

Keep in mind that red tape is just a business-friendly euphemism for deregulation, which is absolutely nothing more than the elimination of guidelines. Most regulations fall under 3 camps: secure workers, secure the general public, and secure the environment. Removing these policies means increasing threat for workers, increasing risk for the public, and increasing danger for the environment.

Particular to workers, it weakened workplace safety. Prior to the costs, joint health and wellness committees were necessary in workplaces with 20 or more workers and worksite health and wellness agents were required at worksites with in between 5 and 19 workers. Under the brand-new costs, the requirements shifted to being risk-based, being compulsory just in offices with higher danger of mishap, injuries, or direct exposure to harmful conditions.