CUPE 1169

Premier Danielle Smith took an alarming step. She used the Notwithstanding Clause to silence collective bargaining and override the rights of Alberta teachers.

This is a dangerous precedent. Once a government learns it can switch off rights with a single vote, no one’s rights are safe. Not workers. Not teachers. Not families. Not you.

CUPE Alberta has fought for generations to protect the rights of working people. Every benefit we have, safe workplaces, fair pay, collective bargaining, was won because people stood together. Those victories did not come easy, and we cannot allow them to be erased by a Premier willing to trade democracy for control.

That is why we are promoting Forward Canada’s Save the Charter campaign today. Because this fight is about more than one law. It is about the kind of Alberta we leave behind. One where rights belong to everyone, not to the government of the day.

If we stay silent, this becomes the new normal. But if we act now, we can stop it before it spreads.

Add your name now to defend the Charter and protect our rights:

[savethecharter.ca]

Here is what is at stake:

• The right to bargain collectively and be treated with respect at work.
• The freedom to speak out and organize without fear.
• Charter protections for Alberta’s most vulnerable.

Whether you are a CUPE member or an Albertan who believes in fairness, your voice matters. This is a moment for all of us to stand up together.

Let us remind Alberta’s leaders: working people built this province, and we will not stand by while they tear down our rights.

In solidarity,

CUPE Alberta

P.S. Show solidarity with Alberta workers by joining the Alberta Federation of Labour’s Solidarity Text Line. Text Resist to 55255 or visit [afl.org/action-pages/resist/] for updates

Will We Fight for Our Basic Human Rights? 

The decision yesterday to invoke the “notwithstanding clause” to force teachers back to work and accept an agreement that 89.5% of teachers had voted against is a gross removal of a fundamental right. Rights only exist in reality if people are willing to defend them. History has shown that when those in power violate the rights of one group, it is not long before the rights of other groups are also violated, unless people fight back.

In 2015, the Supreme Court established that the Charter of Rights and Freedoms protects a right to strike. “The right of employees to strike is vital to protecting the meaningful process of collective bargaining,” wrote Justice Rosailie Abella in their decision. Collective bargaining, backed up by the ability to strike, have been the essential tools that enabled the labour movement to raise wages and improve working conditions. This allows the creation of a prosperous middle class, which we have enjoyed for decades, but now see being eroded. This right is what allows most of us to prosper, and the ease with which our government has chosen to violate this right threatens this shared prosperity.

Rights, backed up by courts, are fundamental to democracy. Since the beginning of democracy, people have recognized that even the rule of a democratically elected government can become dangerous, especially to minority populations,  if it is not held in check by legal protections (rights) backed up by the power of the courts. This is why the international movement of human rights grew out of the horrors of what was a democratically elected Nazi Germany. The notwithstanding clause overrides both these rights and the protection of these rights provided by the courts.

Our government did not need to use the notwithstanding clause – they could have legislated the teachers back to work, because the strike is causing “irreparable harm,” which would then bring the settlement of this strike to binding arbitration, in which both sides would have to live with the decision of an objective third party. Why did our government choose to violate fundamental rights instead? This is a question that all Canadians need to be asking.

What this means is that the teachers are not only fighting to preserve our public education system so that it can provide a quality education to our children, but they are also fighting to preserve the fundamental rights we all share. This is a fight that we all have a stake in. As a parent, I would rather have my children at home a while longer than have the rights we all rely on violated.

Our strategy team met last night. As an Alliance, our first step is to call on all of our members to write their MLA and the premier to push back against this violation of our rights. This is only an initial response. We will engage with our labour partners to decide on a medium and long-term strategy. In the meantime, we are also calling on all of our members to:

1) Write your MLAs

2) Use your networks to ask others to write as well.

3) Educate your communities about why this is important and why they need to remember what our government is doing,  not just in the coming weeks, but in two years when our government faces an election.

Do you want to learn more? 

The CBC has an article on the constitutional history of this:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/alberta-notwithstanding-clause-teacher-strike-9.6955608

And on the back to work legislation and its implications for the teachers’ strike:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/alberta-teachers-back-to-work-bill-9.6955558

From the Globe and Mail:

https://apple.news/AVfzq9tM3S8Wde6ndsgjH-Q

Here is a video explanation from the Alberta Federation of Labour about why this is significant for labour:

https://youtu.be/h8j-LpHVlF0?si=A__srZ050Euy8bUm

And the statement from labour unions from across our province.

https://afl.org/statement-union-leaders-warn-ucp-government-do-not-invoke-notwithstanding-clause/

You can read Bill 2 yourself at:

https://docs.assembly.ab.ca/LADDAR_files/docs/bills/bill/legislature_31/session_2/20251023_bill-002.pdf

Submitted by Ryan Andersen, Lead Organizer (Calgary Alliance for the Common Good)

Ever since workers and their unions won legal recognition in Canada, governments have looked for ways to limit our right to strike. For decades, federal and provincial governments relied on back-to-work legislation to break strikes, but in recent months the federal government has embraced an even less democratic approach: Section 107 of the Canada Labour Code.