Saturday, February 12, 2005

HEY RALPH, SHOW US THE MONEY


Well our tubby Premier showed the other night that he listens and hears Albertans. Of course he has been deaf to the screams of pain of Martha and Henry for years, but 2005 is the provinces birthday, and being a magnanimous ruler, King Ralph has decided to throw a few crumbs to the “little people”. With Ralph it’s never a royal proclamation it’s always a thought, a suggestion, an idea, he will test the waters see the response and if the fishing looks good he will throw out the line, hook and sinker.

In his first of three “State of the Province” on TV, Alberta is looking more American all the time, he made three suggestions;

That for this year universities and colleges should send the bill for any tuition increases to the government.

That perhaps Alberta, being the richest province in Canada and having a record oil boom, should not have the lowest minimum wage in the country, and perhaps, if business likes the idea (oh please) he would increase the minimum wage from below $6 an hour to $7 an hour.

That maybe it would be a nice birthday present for the province if he proclaimed September 1 as an annual provincial holiday, to celebrate our centennial. That would give Albertans a four day long weekend on the years that it coincided with the Labour Day long weekend.

Oh the howling of the corporate bosses could be heard across the province. The fax machines were clicking faster then a pair of wind up joke teeth. The calculators were out and it was declared that a day off for Albertans would cost almost a billion dollars in lost surplus value (the business folks call this euphemistically ‘productivity’, we know it as ‘profit’) and then some for having to pay the wage slaves that would still be forced to work this holiday at time and a half wages.

Heck they didn’t have time to calculate the impact of the minimum wage increase on their profit; they just knew that Ralph was leaving their pockets a bit lighter.

While an increase to $7 an hour would finally end Alberta’s position as the Ebenezer Scrooge of Canada having the lowest minimum wage even behind the poorest province in Canada, Newfoundland, it still is not a Living Wage.

General Minimum Wage Rate

Differential Minimum Wage Rate

British Columbia

$8.00

$6.00 for first 500
hours of work

Alberta

$5.90

na

Saskatchewan

$6.65

na

Manitoba

$7.00 ($7.25 April 1, 2005)

na

Ontario

$7.15($7.45 February 1, 2005)

$6.70 for students ($6.95 February 1, 2005)
$6.20 for liquor servers($6.50 February 1, 2005)

Quebec

$7.45 ($7.60 May 1, 2005)

$6.70 for workers receiving gratuities ($6.85 May 1, 2005)

New Brunswick

$6.30

na

Nova Scotia

$6.50

$6.05 for inexperienced workers

Prince Edward Island

$6.80

na

Newfoundland
& Labrador

$6.00 ($6.25 June 1, 2005)

na

Northwest Territories

$8.25

na

Yukon

$7.20

na

Nunavut

$8.50

na

Note: For workers in federal jurisdiction industries, the minimum wage is the general adult minimum wage rate of the province or territory where the work is performed.


Pretty embarrassing for a province that has declared massive surpluses every year for the last decade and has declared itself debt free! Albertans need a Living Wage not a minimum wage that barely catches up to Manitoba or Ontario, let alone B.C. all provinces that have massive deficits and debt. Day Care workers in Alberta working with ‘society’s most precious resource’, as the right wing likes to remind us, barely make over minimum wages. Workers in the service sector, those not in construction or other unionized jobs, make minimum wages and are expected to earn more from tips, again a tax on the consumer not the business.

But before the Red Flag of Socialism is raised at the Legislature, let’s look at what really would help Martha and Henry. In Alberta the Edmonton Social Planning Council has determined that to be able to live at the national poverty level using a basket of goods purchasing model that wages would have to be $10 an hour. That’s a Living Wage.

And further employers should have to pay full costs for health care, extended health benefits, and provide a transferable pension for all full and part time workers in Alberta. That’s the position the IWW, Industrial Workers of the World, has taken over the issue of what should be the base rate of pay for all workers, full time or part time, in Alberta.

And while Ralph is suddenly the new found friend of the working class, let us not forget that disabled Albertans have to live on $850 a month, in the form of AISH payments, any more income and it gets clawed back. They have not had a cost of living increase in ten years! In fact if they were able to work, at minimum wage in Alberta they would only make $860 a month!

During the November election, a meaner, nastier, Ralph Klein did his Ebenezer Scrooge imitation in stating that disabled protestors “looked able enough” to him and any increase they got would probably be spent on “booze and cigarettes”. Not satisfied with kicking off his election campaign by kicking the poor and disabled, he went north to boom town Grand Prairie and told the Chamber of Commerce, his kind of Albertans that “Severely normal Albertans” don’t care about AISH or the disabled. That was an election ‘Opp’s’ heard across the country. And even now his royal highness still has not done anything to address this glaring inequity.

The response from the labour movement has been skeptical, and it should be, Albertans of all walks of life should be demanding that Ralph show us the MONEY. It is after all our money, made by working people without which not a single drop of oil would be extracted, refined or exported. It is our low wages that have made the business folks rich, and allowed the government its surplus.

Ten years ago King Ralph declared a province wide wage freeze on public sector workers, and demanded roll backs to pay off the deficit we had not created. The deficit was the result of his governments poorly planned business investments, and the massive tax holiday they gave to the oil companies. And Albertans were lectured by Ralph then about tightening our belts and renovating our house. Now that he and his business friends have had a decade dining at the table of the Alberta boom, the least he could do is end his career as he began it, being the populist beer hall politician of the common volk.

An extra day off and a pay increase, now that’s worth celebrating along with the provinces birthday, maybe we could afford to buy some booze from the privatized liquor store around the corner, to toast with.

KLEIN TAKES FLAK OVER EXTRA DAY OFF
By DAWN WALTON
Globe and Mail, Friday, February 11, 2005 - Page A5

CALGARY -- These are heady days for the working stiff in Alberta.

Premier Ralph Klein, who long scoffed at the idea of raising Alberta's minimum wage of $5.90 an hour -- the lowest in the country -- suddenly announced this week the oil-rich province would raise it to $7.

And now, he's musing about declaring Sept. 1 a statutory holiday to celebrate the province's centennial. Heck, Mr. Klein told a befuddled business audience in Edmonton this week, this one-time-only day off could mean a five-day weekend if workers also take off Sept. 2, a Friday, and return after Labour Day Monday.

Corporate Alberta wants to know what happened to Mr. Pro-business: A Premier best known for cutting funding and downsizing jobs. Has Mr. Klein gone soft during his fourth and final term? Or is he continuing his well-honed practice of shooting from the lip?

"My main objection is he's creating a political benefit and imposing a private-sector cost," said Dan Kelly, western vice-president for the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, a lobby group for small and medium-sized companies.

There would be a $712-million loss in productivity for the day off, according to Mr. Kelly. He reached this conclusion by dividing the province's gross domestic product by the number of working days a year.

That doesn't include the potential additional wage cost of $133-million if Alberta businesses stayed open and pay time and a half for those stuck on the job, he pointed out. And the higher minimum wage could place undue burdens on small businesses, force some out of business and drive wage inflation in the province, he added.

"The political advantages are very clear," Mr. Kelly said. "Who wouldn't want an extra day off? Who wouldn't want lower wage earners to make a little bit more? But he shouldn't be making public policy at press conferences."

Mr. Klein has promised to consult with business before government approves a new statutory holiday, which was brought to cabinet by Community Development Minister Gary Mar, but clearly he's already feeling the heat.

"The danger of floating an idea is that you get a lot of static and that's what it is -- an idea and you shouldn't get static over an idea," Mr. Klein told reporters yesterday. "You shouldn't get static over a thought, and it's not even my thought. It's the minister's thought."

He said he's not so sure he even supports it.

"I don't get holidays," Mr. Klein said. "Really. I mean I work stat holidays and so I can't say that I'm personally in favour or not in favour."

But Dan MacLennan, president of the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees, who has butted heads with the Premier over the years during collective bargaining for his 60,000 members, has already written to Mr. Klein to lend the idea support.

"We're waiting to see if it happens," Mr. MacLennan said, ". . . He's surprised people before."

John Carpay, Alberta's head of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, has some better ideas for birthday presents to Albertans as the province gets ready to announce close to a $6-billion surplus for 2005.

"There's absolutely no reason why this government can't give back $4.8-billion it collected in personal income tax last year," Mr. Carpay said.

Or better still, it could abolish health-care premiums for all Albertans, he added.

An extra day off in September could cause confusion in Lloydminster, which straddles the Alberta-Saskatchewan boundary.

Already, some townsfolk, but not all, take Alberta's Family Day holiday in February. Different drinking ages in each province and anti-smoking laws also create problems in Lloydminster.

"That's just a norm for our city," Mayor Ken Baker said. "We're just used to it."

Saskatchewan Premier Lorne Calvert has been prodded about announcing a one-time-only holiday this year as his province also celebrates 100 years in Confederation.

"No, we're not looking seriously at having a day off," said government spokesman Jay Branch.

"But I'm thinking of moving there just so I can have a day off, too," he added, with a laugh.






































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