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It seemed to me that I was moving far from primarily blogging about politics to now specializing in labour news. As a result, I rebranded again in the spring of 2022 to highlight this emerging focus. Which's how The Alberta Worker was born. That summer season, I also launched the, where I talk to members of the working class about their life stories and their individual labour journeys.
Secret Values of Specialized Education for Winnipeg ChildrenNow, let's get to the reason I am here today: labour rights, worker advocacy, and the existing landscape for Alberta's post-secondary workers. I graduated from what is now Lethbridge Polytechnic in 2001. I completed their multimedia production program, and my practicum ended up developing into a full-time task, where I worked for 9 years before being laid off throughout budget plan cuts thanks to frozen operating grants from the provincial government at the time.
Secret Values of Specialized Education for Winnipeg ChildrenAs well, my first paid speaking gig was at Olds College. After my spouse got her master's degree, one of the first places to employ her to teach was what was then Red Deer College. Needless to say, I have an unique location in my heart for the colleges and institutes in Alberta.
Since the UCP took power in 2019 under Jason Kenney, they've presented numerous pieces of legislation that have made things more challenging for workers. The very first change was in fact introduced in their second expense, the so-called Open For Company Act, which worked in the summertime of 2019. This expense lowered the base pay for trainee workers under 18 from $15 an hour to $13 an hour.
They have not altered the adult minimum wage the entire time they've been in workplace, and now it's the most affordable minimum wage in the country, for the first time in over a decade. This is the 2nd longest duration because 1965 that Alberta base pay employees have not seen a wage boost.
Prior to this expense becoming law, workers could bank their overtime hours at 1.5 times their worked hours. If someone worked 3 hours, they might bank those 3 hours, and then when they desired to take it as time off, they might take 4.5 hours off instead of 3 hours.
After Expense 2 was passed, companies could give the banked time as straight time, which encouraged them to pay overtime, rather than permit workers to take the extra time off. Expense 2 minimized statutory holiday pay, particularly for part-time and casual workers. Prior to the expense, workers got holiday pay regardless of whether they worked the vacation and despite whether the stat holiday fell on a set up workday.
The following year, the UCP federal government introduced Expense 32, otherwise called the Restoring Balance in Alberta's Workplaces Act. This brand-new legislation required unions to now get explicit permission from their members before they could use profits gathered from fees for social or political causes. This increased the administrative concerns on unions, which indicated additional expenses, and it limited their ability to utilize funds for advocacy for the broader working people.
First, they more than doubled the accreditation procedure timeline. Before, employees could hold an accreditation vote just 10 calendar days after they applied to the Alberta Labour Relations Board for certification. Now, they need to wait 20 business days, generally an entire month. This gives employers more time to unionbust.
Now, they can challenge procedural or technical concerns on the accreditation procedure itself, such as small mistakes in the application, supporting documents that were filed improperly, timing of the application, scope of which job titles are consisted of in the proposed bargaining system, and whether the union used so-called browbeating to acquire support amongst the workers.
Bear in mind that red tape is merely a business-friendly euphemism for deregulation, which is nothing more than the removal of regulations. Many policies fall into 3 camps: safeguard employees, safeguard the general public, and secure the environment. Eliminating these policies indicates increasing risk for workers, increasing risk for the public, and increasing threat for the environment.
Particular to employees, it weakened office security. Prior to the expense, joint health and wellness committees were compulsory in offices with 20 or more employees and worksite health and security agents were needed at worksites with between 5 and 19 employees. Under the new expense, the requirements shifted to being risk-based, being necessary only in work environments with higher threat of accident, injuries, or direct exposure to dangerous conditions.
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