UNA joins historic union ‘Solidarity Pact’
United Nurses of Alberta joined more than 20 Alberta unions Wednesday in a “Solidarity Pact” uniting more than 300,000 workers in a strategy to defend each other against attacks on the rights of working people by governments, public agencies and private companies.
“The purpose of the Solidarity Pact is to let employers know that an attack on one union will be viewed as an attack on all unions and that Alberta unions will fight together—all for one, and one for all,” said Gil McGowan, president of the Alberta Federation of Labour. “Solidarity is our greatest strength.”
McGowan told a news conference in Edmonton that Alberta union leaders are concerned the economic uncertainty caused by Donald Trump’s trade war with Canada will be used by employers as an excuse to put the brakes on negotiating fair wage increases for Alberta workers. The Solidarity Pact is a demonstration of their refusal to accept such arguments.
“We will not allow employers and governments to use this moment of crisis as a pretext to put the screws to Canadian workers,” McGowan said. “If we’re all in this together, then we really have to be all in this together.”
Even before the uncertainty caused by the Trump tariff war hit, wages were stagnating in Alberta. Recent research by economist Jim Stanford shows that since 2013, when the average wage in Alberta was 17 per cent higher than the national average, by last year that gap had closed to 1.7 per cent.
UNA President Heather Smith told the news conference that UNA’s recent tentative agreement with major health care employers was a meaningful step toward the recognition and respect Alberta’s nurses deserve and have been fighting for. “We believe it will help to retain nurses now working in the health-care system and recruit new nurses to work in Alberta,” she said. “And we believe that all public sector health care workers need and deserve the same respect to be acknowledged in their collective agreements.”
Smith said she hopes UNA’s participation in the Solidarity Pact will hasten the same recognition for other front-line health care workers.
Under the Solidarity Pact, the unions committed to supporting each other in the event of strikes, and to take coordinated action if the provincial or federal governments make moves to strip any workers of their constitutionally protected right to strike or otherwise eliminate worker bargaining power.
The Solidarity Pact is the product of a new coalition of unions, called the Alberta Common Front, which brings unions affiliated with the AFL together with unions outside the AFL’s umbrella.