CLASS WAR IN ALBERTA

'Full-frontal attack' on workers: NDP filibuster over labour law changes

JANET FRENCH & EMMA GRANEY
Updated: June 6, 2019

The NDP protested proposed UCP labour law changes Wednesday night by kicking off an all-night filibuster of Bill 2 in the legislature.

As Opposition MLAs made their cases Thursday morning for why the bill should go to a committee for further study, it was technically still the Wednesday evening sitting of the house. As of 11:30 a.m., the house had been sitting for 16 consecutive hours.

“All I have waiting for me is an empty motel room,” government house leader Jason Nixon told reporters in the rotunda Thursday morning, after he’d been up for more than 24 hours. “If the NDP want to spend the entire night hanging out with me inside the legislature, I’m happy to do it with them, especially when I’m getting something that matters so much to my constituents through the house.”

Opposition Leader Rachel Notley roasted the government over the impact Bill 2 will have on overtime. Specifically, allowing overtime hours to be banked at straight time, rather than time-and-a-half.

Notley called on the UCP to “go back to the drawing board” and better inform themselves on what she labelled an “aggressive grab at overtime” for 400,000 workers in the province, many of whom are in the oil and gas and construction sectors.

If the UCP is going to pass the bill, she said, it needs to be held accountable “to working people, their families and their employers.”

“When we embark upon these risky ways to the bottom, back to these 1980-style Reaganomic economic plans, it’s divisive, because it’s about growing inequality, not reducing it,” Notley said.

“This is a full-frontal attack on the overtime of working people.”

Along with changing overtime rules, Bill 2 will cut the minimum wage for students under 18 and return Alberta to old rules around union certification.

If the legislation passes, only employees who regularly work on a stat will be entitled to holiday pay, and must work 30 days in the previous 12 months to qualify for it.

Opposition NDP house leader Deron Bilous told reporters Thursday morning his party is delaying the bill to raise awareness about its implications for workers, including those in construction and the energy sector.

Bilous accused the UCP of not being upfront with voters during the election campaign about how the legislation would affect workers — a characterization Nixon rejected.

“Albertans deserve to see what’s in these bills and to hear about it,” Bilous said.

MLAs are taking shifts to maintain quorum of 20 members sitting in the house.

Notley said last month the NDP would use all tools available to them to oppose any bill they see as an attack on workers.

Nixon said UCP members will sit as long as they must to get their bills passed.

“I love doing this. Our MLAs are ecstatic to come up here and fight for what they promised their constituents they would do.”

SEE

CLASS WAR IN FORD NATION
Doug Ford is Gutting Labour Laws, Eliminating Sick Days and Cancelling Raises for Minimum Wage Workers

• CLASS WAR IN ALBERTA  Edmonton·Updated All-night ...
• CLASS WAR IN ALBERTA Some Alberta businesses vow t...
• CLASS WAR IN ALBERTA  Alberta MLAs continue marath...
• CLASS WAR IN ALBERTA'Full-frontal attack' on worke...