Prentice, public-sector unions dial down heat

When journalists gathered at Government House in Edmonton on Thursday, they weren’t sure what to expect.

Upstairs, the province’s most powerful politicians were meeting with the province’s most powerful public-sector union leaders. There had been so much friction between the two sides the past month, reporters wouldn’t have been surprised if the building suddenly burst into flames.

But after listening “respectfully” to each other for an hour, the meeting ended on a positive note. They didn’t really resolve anything. The provincial government is still looking for ways to cut spending and public-sector workers still feel they’re in the crosshairs. It would seem Premier Jim Prentice has stopped overtly pointing the finger of blame at public-sector workers for gobbling up $2.6 billion in increased labour costs over the next three years (a number that the union lead- ers continue to dispute).

If anything was resolved, it was the fate of the government’s poke-the-unionsin-the-eye Bill 45. In a conciliatory move, Prentice announced he was scrapping the controversial bill known officially as the Public Sector Services Continuation Act, which would have dramatically increased fines against public-sector unions for launching illegal strikes and would have even levelled fines against anyone threatening an illegal strike.

It was a bad law, likely unconstitutional, which had been brought in as a weapon against unions by former premier Alison Redford and defended by interim premier Dave Hancock. It was never proclaimed, meaning it never became the law of the land, but it was hanging there like a fire axe ready to be used whenever the government deemed fit.

Prentice said Thursday he knew the law had to go the moment he looked into it after becoming premier. Interestingly, he didn’t repeal Bill 45 then. Even though he was keenly scrapping or overturning almost every other controversial issue from the Redford era, he didn’t touch one of the great irritants in labour relations between the government and public sector workers. Until this week.

“I don’t support the legislation,” Prentice told reporters after the meeting. “The government doesn’t support the legislation. The unions don’t support the legislation and it needs to be repealed. So we will repeal it.”

Of course, a cynic would point out the government did support the legislation. Bill 45 was introduced, defended and passed by Alberta’s Progressive Conservative caucus. It was one of the puzzling declarations of war against the government’s own workers, many of whom during the 2012 election had supported Redford’s “progressive” government that promised to treat them with respect.

Redford had tried, unsuccessfully, to use the law to force wages freezes on AUPE members through Bill 46 while trampling on the rights of public sector workers through Bill 45. Bill 46 is gone and Bill 45 will suffer the same fate.

After Thursday’s meeting, union leaders seemed vaguely satisfied, but weren’t giving Prentice a standing ovation. For one, they — and Prentice — know Bill 46 would likely have been defeated in court anyway, especially after a recent Supreme Court ruling defending the right to strike of public-sector workers in Saskatchewan. For another, union leaders are nervous about Prentice’s undefined plans to reform how the government bargains with its unions and which workers will be declared essential and thus denied the right to strike.

By all accounts, Thursday’s meeting between Alberta’s most senior cabinet ministers and representatives of the most powerful public-sector unions was as respectful as it was unprecedented. The union leaders even expressed grudging admiration. AUPE president Guy Smith said he understood why Prentice waited until now to scrap Bill 45 rather than doing it last fall.

“He may have presumed back then, or knew, that he’d be calling for an early election, and I think it’s one of those things he announces very close to this election to calm the waters,” said Smith. “He’s a good strategist, I’ll give him that.”

Not exactly a ringing endorsement, but it’s more than anything Redford managed to get from Alberta’s public-sector unions.