Unions back select candidates
Members urged to vote for those ‘friendly’ to labour
Calgary’s labour unions are urging members to help sweep out several sitting public school trustees and preserve a quartet of progressive councillors.
With the support of Calgary and District Labour Council and its affiliate public- and private-sector unions comes volunteers, campaign funds and votes. Usually the list of supported candidates is a private matter, but this year a Canadian Union of Public Employees local branch posted the list online.
The labour council’s Alex Shevalier reasoned that because the unions didn’t encourage anybody to run but endorsed them later, the list of supported candidates isn’t a slate — just as suburban home builders have said about the council challengers they have helped finance.
“We looked at whether or not their values sit with our values, and we looked at the viability of their campaigns,” Shevalier told the Herald.
Don Monroe, head of the municipal outdoor workers’ union, said a conservative political group’s participation in the campaign has heightened concerns about the 2013 election among his peers.
“With that Manning Centre coming in, I think that’s what got all our members,” Monroe said. “We were trying to back, basically, the labourfriendly candidates that we consider friendly.”
The labour-endorsed incumbents are Gael MacLeod (Ward 4), Druh Farrell (Ward 7), Gian-Carlo Carra (Ward 9) and Brian Pincott (Ward 11). The union coalition also endorses challengers Chris Harper and Bernie Dowhan in open Wards 1 and 2, and challenger Evan Woolley in Ward 8. They didn’t endorse anybody in the seven other wards.
The labour council’s affiliates include the major unions for the city’s municipal and school sectors, as well as private-sector unions for grocery and telecommunications sectors. The firefighter and police associations aren’t part of the group, and the police union has endorsed incumbent John Mar in Ward 8 and challenger James Maxim in Ward 11.
On the Calgary Board of Education, the labour council wants an overhaul. In six districts the group lists, it only backed incumbent Sheila Taylor — and endorsed challengers against veterans Lynn Ferguson, Pamela King and George Lane. The unions are supporting all incumbents seeking re-election on the Catholic school board.
Shevalier said the secular board’s accountability record has long frustrated its union affiliates. “And in the Catholic trustee side we were generally pleased, because they were transparent, you could see their budget, they didn’t move their meetings to 3 o’clock,” he said. “They didn’t do a lot of things that irritated us.”
Told of the unions’ endorsement list, Lane pointed to a review by trustees that said the public board follows “best practices” on transparency. He also noted the list is dominated by candidates with ties to Association for Responsive Trusteeship in Calgary Schools, a group routinely critical of CBE processes. He expressed disappointment with the unions’ advocacy against him.
“I don’t think that they’re paragons of transparency, any more than I think ARTICS is a paragon of transparency,” Lane said.
Trina Hurdman, against Lane, said the labour council approached her individually, not through ARTICS. She said she’s heard grief from public school unions who face cuts but they can’t see details of those budget reductions in board documents.
Dowhan, the Ward 2 council candidate, said union members volunteered last weekend to help install his campaign signs, but he declined offers of volunteers to phone voters on his behalf. He spoke with Shevalier before the council’s endorsement and donation.
“There was no promises. They just wanted to know that unionized city employees have someone looking out for them,” Dowhan said.
The endorsement may split the progressive vote in that northwest ward among the unions’ favoured candidate and Shawn Ripley, running with help from many supporters of Mayor Naheed Nenshi.
The current contracts with key city unions expire next year, and the next council will set the mandate for administrators’ upcoming round of bargaining.
“Those unions are going to have a direct interest in them (councillors), hoping they’ll get a sweet deal,” said Derek Fildebrandt of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.
The endorsement list does seem to draw ideological lines between candidates backed by unions and conservatives in the suburban development sector. With the exception of Chris Harper, none of the unionbacked candidates have disclosed donations from Shane Homes, whose CEO Cal Wenzel has pledged to fund “business-friendly” candidates.
Farrell has received union money but said she’s not noticed any volunteer help from labour groups.
She also maintained she’ll keep an open mind on labour issues, despite the endorsement.
“I”m not anti-labour, but I’m not slavishly supportive of every initiative of theirs,” Farrell said, noting that she’s skeptical of public-private partnerships on infrastructure projects, but not as firmly opposed as the labour groups are.