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It seemed to me that I was moving far from mostly blogging about politics to now concentrating on labour news. As an outcome, I rebranded once again in the spring of 2022 to stress this emerging focus. And that's how The Alberta Worker was born. That summer, I also launched the, where I speak with members of the working class about their life stories and their personal labour journeys.
Preparation for Success in the 2026 Winnipeg YearNow, let's get to the reason I am here today: labour rights, employee advocacy, and the present 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 becoming a full-time job, where I worked for 9 years before being laid off during spending plan cuts thanks to frozen operating grants from the provincial federal government at the time.
Preparation for Success in the 2026 Winnipeg YearAlso, my first paid speaking gig was at Olds College. After my spouse got her master's degree, among the first places to hire her to teach was what was then Red Deer College. Needless to state, I have a special place in my heart for the colleges and institutes in Alberta.
Since the UCP took power in 2019 under Jason Kenney, they have actually presented numerous pieces of legislation that have made things more difficult for employees. The first modification was in fact introduced in their second bill, the so-called Open For Organization Act, which took result in the summer season of 2019. This bill decreased the base pay for trainee employees under 18 from $15 an hour to $13 an hour.
They haven't altered the adult minimum wage the whole time they have actually been in office, and now it's the most affordable minimum wage in the nation, for the very first time in over a years. This is the 2nd longest duration given that 1965 that Alberta minimum wage workers haven't seen a wage boost.
Prior to this bill ending up being law, workers could bank their overtime hours at 1.5 times their worked hours. If somebody worked 3 hours, they might bank those 3 hours, and then when they wanted to take it as time off, they could take 4.5 hours off instead of 3 hours.
After Costs 2 was passed, employers could give the banked time as straight time, which encouraged them to pay overtime, instead of enable employees to take the extra time off. Finally, Expense 2 reduced statutory holiday pay, especially for part-time and casual employees. Prior to the bill, workers got vacation pay no matter whether they worked the holiday and regardless of whether the stat vacation fell on an arranged workday.
The following year, the UCP federal government introduced Costs 32, otherwise referred to as the Restoring Balance in Alberta's Workplaces Act. This brand-new legislation required unions to now get explicit authorization from their members before they might utilize income gathered from charges for social or political causes. This increased the administrative concerns on unions, which implied additional expenses, and it restricted their capability to utilize funds for advocacy for the wider working people.
First, they more than doubled the certification process timeline. Before, workers might hold an accreditation vote just 10 calendar days after they used to the Alberta Labour Relations Board for accreditation. Now, they have to wait 20 organization days, generally an entire month. This offers companies more time to unionbust.
Now, they can challenge procedural or technical issues on the accreditation process itself, such as minor mistakes in the application, supporting files that were submitted improperly, timing of the application, scope of which task titles are included in the proposed bargaining unit, and whether the union utilized so-called coercion to get assistance among the employees.
Red tape is merely a business-friendly euphemism for deregulation, which is nothing more than the elimination of regulations. Many guidelines fall under 3 camps: protect employees, secure the general public, and safeguard the environment. Getting rid of these guidelines suggests increasing risk for employees, increasing risk for the public, and increasing risk for the environment.
Specific to workers, it undermined workplace safety. Prior to the costs, joint health and safety committees were obligatory in work environments with 20 or more workers and worksite health and wellness representatives were needed at worksites with in between 5 and 19 employees. Under the new expense, the requirements shifted to being risk-based, being mandatory only in offices with higher danger of mishap, injuries, or exposure to dangerous conditions.
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