Palace Casino Strike

There is an ongoing strike at the Palace Casino in West Edmonton Mall. It is another strike in Alberta by workers for a 'FIRST' contract. We are one of the few provinces that does not automatically give workers a first contract once they successfully win union recognition. Nope, you can join the union and then have to fight to get a contract.

Which means that first contract strikes are dragged out by management, as they are in this case. The strike started back in September.

Well this is an ugly little strike because while the Palace is operated by a private company, in fact it is run by a tax avoiding Income Trust, it functions with State support and sanction. After all the Alberta government makes more money off gambling than off the Oil Sands.

B.C. Business Magazine says Gateway Income Trust, based in Burnaby, B.C., was the third most profitable business in that province last year, posting profit of close to $20 million in the first half of 2006. The company also operates the Baccarat Casino in Edmonton.

And UFCW the union involved is faced with non-profit groups and charities needing to use the casino to raise funds for things like school books, yep in Alberta the biggest users of casino fundraising are school parent groups trying to offset the provincial governments underfunding of public schools.

And it appears management at the Palace is googling Doug O'Halloran, who is President of UFCW. And how do I know this, well they visited my blog.

static-68-179-10-233.ptr.terago.ca (Palace Casino)

Alberta, Edmonton, Canada, 0 returning visits

Date	Time	WebPage
6th January 2007	15:40:16	plawiuk.blogspot.com/2005_10_09_plawiuk_archive.html www.google.ca/search?q=doug%2Bohalloran&hl=en&rls= SUNA%2CSUNA%3A2006-16% 2CSUNA%3Aen

Instead of googling UFCW the Palace Casino management should be bargaining with their workers.

Once again this shows that the Alberta Labour Relations Board is the tool of the bosses, and labour should abandon it for Direct Action.

Every strike is a battle in the Class War!








The IWW Edmonton holds public solidarity pickets every Sunday afternoon at 2pm at West Edmonton Mall to support the striking workers, join them.

"The longer the picket line the shorter the strike."

See

Unions

UFCW

Strikes

Labour



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Palace Casino, Palace Casino Strike, Strike, UFCW, IWW, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, Gateway Income Trust, WEM, West Edmonton Mall