UNIONS IN ALBERTA GET DECIMATED BY COVID-19 LAYOFFS BECAUSE OF CONTRACTS BROKEN LEGALLY DUE TO PUBLIC HEALTH EMERGENCY LAWS APPLIED BY UNION BUSTING KENNEY GOVERMENT AND OTHER LEVELS OF GOVERNMENT
BUT WILL THEY FIGHT BACK?
BUT WILL THEY FIGHT BACK?
UNIONS POWERLESS TO PROTECT WORKERS.
WORKERS MUST ORGANIZE A GENERAL STRIKE AGAINST CAPITALISM
BECAUSE THEIR UNIONS WON'T
READ ON TRY NOT TO WEEP FOR THE PROLETARIAT
City forces laid-off workers to 'choose between a rock and a hard place'
Union officials are concerned their members are being asked to make untenable choices as the city rolls out its deployment strategy for newly laid-off employees.
Liane Faulder EDMONTON JOURNAL 4/4/2020
The city of Edmonton laid off 1,600 workers at recreation
centres on Monday due to closures caused by the COVID-19
pandemic. DAVID BLOOM / Postmedia
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Employees who chose not to take the unknown job were told they would lose supplementary unemployment benefits that were a part of their lay-off package, including a top-up over what the federal government has promised fired workers. They would also be taken out of the redeployment pool.
The benefits were included in a letter of understanding (LOU) recently negotiated by five city unions after being approached by the City of Edmonton, said Lanny Chudyk, president of Civic Service Union 52.
Other benefits in the new agreement included using laid-off workers first when it comes to hiring, and the accrual of staff seniority during the lay-off period.
Chudyk said distraught members have contacted the union. One was a single mother with two small children who couldn’t consider a job until she understood the child-care implications. Some of the re-deployed jobs involve cleaning buses late at night.
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Employees who chose not to take the unknown job were told they would lose supplementary unemployment benefits that were a part of their lay-off package, including a top-up over what the federal government has promised fired workers. They would also be taken out of the redeployment pool.
The benefits were included in a letter of understanding (LOU) recently negotiated by five city unions after being approached by the City of Edmonton, said Lanny Chudyk, president of Civic Service Union 52.
Other benefits in the new agreement included using laid-off workers first when it comes to hiring, and the accrual of staff seniority during the lay-off period.
Chudyk said distraught members have contacted the union. One was a single mother with two small children who couldn’t consider a job until she understood the child-care implications. Some of the re-deployed jobs involve cleaning buses late at night.
BUS CLEANING IS A DIFFERENT JOB CLASSIFICATION AND IMPACTS A DIFFERENT UNION, ATU.
“The normal fear with being assigned to a duty that might not be within the normal scope of your job might be that it would have some safety issues,” said Chudyk. “But we have been assured by the employer that safety measure are in place to protect the members.”
THE CITY HAS PROVEN IT'S ASSURANCES ARE USELESS
In a letter obtained by Postmedia, one worker previously in an administrative position wrote the union to say the city’s deployment e-mail felt like “a veiled threat … making me feel like I was stuck between a rock and a hard place.”
“I feel very frustrated with the lack of professionalism and understanding during this pandemic,” said the employee in the letter.
Lou Arab, communications representative for the Canadian Union of Public Employees, which signed the LOU, called the move by the city “unreasonable behaviour.”
PATHETIC
Chudyk said the LOU was better than previous agreements unions had with the city and noted that once a state of emergency has been declared, governments can operate outside of collective agreements. WELL THEN THE LOU WAS USELESS
MANAGEMENT USES THE 'F' WORD
“The city came to us and said they didn’t want to (violate) the agreement, but they wanted flexibility,” said Chudyk, who was meeting with the city Friday afternoon to try and resolve problems.
He said some union members have health issues that could be affected by a particular deployment and should contact their union with their concerns.
“The City of Edmonton, and any employers, even during an emergency, is not exempt from … health and safety rules,” he said.
University of Athabasca associate professor Jason Foster
(A FULL TIME PROFESSIONAL POLITICAL MOUTHPIECE FOR THE NDP THEN THE AFL NOW WITH OTHER FORMER UNION REPS TEACHING LABOUR STUDIES AT ATHABASCA U....A SMALL CIRCLE OF FRIENDS )
said that he was surprised that the city would both refuse to stipulate which job employees would be deployed to, and operate on such a tight timeline.
“Anytime the employer throws in a threat of punishment in the form of removing a benefit, that always makes me distrustful of what their motivations are,” said Foster, who teaches human resources and labour relations. “Basically, they’re putting these workers in an impossible situation.”
In an e-mailed statement of response to Postmedia queries received late Friday afternoon, the City of Edmonton said it could not be specific about redeployment“because we were continually receiving redeployment requests from operational areas, and were filling various opportunities as employees responded to the email.”
The city said in the future, deployment e-mails will “clarify for employees the urgency and timeliness of their response as well as the rationale as to why we cannot provide more detail about the specific jobs available for redeployment.” The statement said the city is “working with each employee who refuses redeployment to understand and attempt to resolve the reasons behind the refusal.”
lfaulder@postmedia.com
RED DEER
Return to former jobs not guaranteed for laid off City staff
By Josh Hall (Twitter: @Vancan19)
Mar 30, 2020
Concerns linger over whether City of Red Deer staff laid off due to the COVID-19 pandemic will be getting their former jobs back once it’s over.
The City announced on March 20 that it was laying off around 120 casual workers as recreation and culture facilities were closing until at least June 30. The number of people impacted rose by about 50 as days went by, totalling about 170.
Red Deer City Manager Allan Seabrooke said during a March 20 media conference that workers would be “recalled” once the pandemic is over and operations at facilities can resume.
“Our casual employees that provide all the various services would automatically come back into those jobs,” Seabrooke said in response to a question from rdnewsNOW. “They would not be required to reapply for that job. It is simply a recall and they will go back into the positions they previously had.”
RELATED: City says rec facilities closed until June 30, 120 casual staff laid off
But one employee who’s been laid off says they weren’t told that would necessarily be the case, telling rdnewsNOW that they were informed they’d have to reapply to get their job back, and that there were no guarantees about receiving the same wages if they did get it.
“What’s most frustrating to me is that I have worked there for many years and all they have to say is that they encourage me to reapply,” the employee says. “It is also unfair for me to be left wondering if I should be looking for another job during this time.”
Barry Brookes, President of CUPE Local 417, which represents usually close to 1200 casual part-time City workers, was pleasantly surprised to hear the City Manager initially say all staff would be automatically recalled.
Concerns linger over whether City of Red Deer staff laid off due to the COVID-19 pandemic will be getting their former jobs back once it’s over.
The City announced on March 20 that it was laying off around 120 casual workers as recreation and culture facilities were closing until at least June 30. The number of people impacted rose by about 50 as days went by, totalling about 170.
Red Deer City Manager Allan Seabrooke said during a March 20 media conference that workers would be “recalled” once the pandemic is over and operations at facilities can resume.
“Our casual employees that provide all the various services would automatically come back into those jobs,” Seabrooke said in response to a question from rdnewsNOW. “They would not be required to reapply for that job. It is simply a recall and they will go back into the positions they previously had.”
RELATED: City says rec facilities closed until June 30, 120 casual staff laid off
But one employee who’s been laid off says they weren’t told that would necessarily be the case, telling rdnewsNOW that they were informed they’d have to reapply to get their job back, and that there were no guarantees about receiving the same wages if they did get it.
“What’s most frustrating to me is that I have worked there for many years and all they have to say is that they encourage me to reapply,” the employee says. “It is also unfair for me to be left wondering if I should be looking for another job during this time.”
Barry Brookes, President of CUPE Local 417, which represents usually close to 1200 casual part-time City workers, was pleasantly surprised to hear the City Manager initially say all staff would be automatically recalled.
THATS NICE WONDER WHAT HE THINKS NOW, OH RIGHT HIS JOB IS NOT ON THE LINE
City of Calgary to temporarily lay off part-time workers
BY TOM ROSS Mar 30, 2020
CALGARY (660 NEWS) — As the City of Calgary is being affected like any other business during the COVID-19 pandemic, temporary layoffs have now been announced.
Monday afternoon, City Manager David Duckworth said they are making some “temporary workforce adjustments”, meaning that part-time, casual and on-call workers will be let go for the time being.
“These are not permanent reductions,” added Duckworth. “We look forward to the time that we are able to re-open facilities and restore impacted services so we can bring our valued employees back to work.”
An official number could not be given at the time, but around 1,300 workers fall under the classification and could be susceptible to the layoffs — though not all of the 1,300 will be let go.
Mayor Naheed Nenshi said it was a very difficult decision, but it makes sense as many people are getting zero hours due to the closure of services such as recreation centres.
“There’s a lot of specifics around things like benefits that we are working through at the moment, but ultimately we are going to treat people as fairly as we can,” Nenshi said.
“If you are teaching a fitness class and that fitness facility is closed, you’re just not getting those hours. And for a lot fo these folks, it made sense to help get them into a place where they can access some of the federal and provincial government supports.”
Final details need to be worked out and many of the workers are still being notified of what is happening. Some will be given eight weeks notice, others will get longer, but supports and compensation will be worked out based on their time of service.
This follows an announcement from the City of Edmonton, where 1,600 people were laid off on Monday.
There are still numerous operations still going on at City Hall, such as building services, so people can still get permits for renovations.
Nenshi said everyone still at the city is working extremely hard, with over 10 per cent working from home now as well. But they have also taken a significant hit as many more are staying home sick or self-isolating.
For example, the transportation department normally sees about 200 people away on a given week due to average sickness or vacation days. Now, that number is up to 600 or 700.
In addition, Calgary Transit is seeing a major financial shortfall due to plummeting ridership.
“It’s real big,” said Nenshi. “We are down about sixty per cent ridership on the bus fleet, about eighty per cent on the train.”
“It’s in the order of six to eight million dollars a month,” added Duckworth.
With that, there are no plans to extend normal transit passes into April, after the City said low-income transit passes for March will stay valid until April 30. Nenshi is encouraging the remaining passengers to continue paying their fares so that the situation does not get worse.
Ultimately, it creates a wider issue for Calgary as the city is not able to have a deficit in the budget, so Nenshi said they have to keep a close eye on it and figure out how to make money back at the end of the year.
Another message was also passed along about the need to continue practicing physical distancing guidelines.
Nenshi said it is good to go out and get exercise, as long as you stay spread out, and encourages people to stay in their neighbourhood rather than drive somewhere so they can walk. Also, if you are on an isolation order you should not be venturing outside of your home.
Calgary Emergency Management Agency Chief Tom Sampson said people were doing good over the weekend while using parks and pathways, and one thing that helped was closing off some road lanes so that pedestrians could spread out further and take advantage of reduced traffic.
However, there are still some compliance issues — such as children using closed-off playgrounds — and if it continues, they may be forced to begin strictly enforcing the rules.
“Our whole thing right now is to spread the word, so we don’t spread the virus,” said Sampson.
He said they are focusing on education at the moment, so parents need to stress the need to their children to listen to these guidelines.
“It’s about talking to people and having them understand that you, the citizens of Calgary, can determine whether or not we have luck pushing this virus down or whether we have a problem,” he said. “And I ensure you that we will have a problem if you don’t physically space if you don’t wash your hands.”
“I never thought that, in the middle of this pandemic, one of the things we would be thinking about is playground police to pull the children off the swings,” added Nenshi.
Sampson agreed there’s no need for playground cops right now, as long as the compliance gets better.
He added that anecdotal reports of people being ticketed for not practicing physical distancing are false, and he is not aware of a bylaw or police officers issuing fines for that.
Finally, on questions about how the homeless can be helped during the crisis, Nenshi said they are doing everything they can at the moment, but decisions on overflow housing will have to come largely from the provincial level.
Some shelters are extending their hours to keep people safe during the day, but there is still a concern around a lack of bathrooms and other public space due to the closure of libraries or cafes or restaurants.
“This is just something that we are continuing to try to adjust to while making sure that everyone stays safe,” added Nenshi.
Earlier plans to use hotels as overflow space were cancelled by the province, despite local hoteliers enthusiastically coming out in support of helping.
City of Calgary to temporarily lay off part-time workers
BY TOM ROSS Mar 30, 2020
CALGARY (660 NEWS) — As the City of Calgary is being affected like any other business during the COVID-19 pandemic, temporary layoffs have now been announced.
Monday afternoon, City Manager David Duckworth said they are making some “temporary workforce adjustments”, meaning that part-time, casual and on-call workers will be let go for the time being.
“These are not permanent reductions,” added Duckworth. “We look forward to the time that we are able to re-open facilities and restore impacted services so we can bring our valued employees back to work.”
An official number could not be given at the time, but around 1,300 workers fall under the classification and could be susceptible to the layoffs — though not all of the 1,300 will be let go.
Mayor Naheed Nenshi said it was a very difficult decision, but it makes sense as many people are getting zero hours due to the closure of services such as recreation centres.
“There’s a lot of specifics around things like benefits that we are working through at the moment, but ultimately we are going to treat people as fairly as we can,” Nenshi said.
“If you are teaching a fitness class and that fitness facility is closed, you’re just not getting those hours. And for a lot fo these folks, it made sense to help get them into a place where they can access some of the federal and provincial government supports.”
Final details need to be worked out and many of the workers are still being notified of what is happening. Some will be given eight weeks notice, others will get longer, but supports and compensation will be worked out based on their time of service.
This follows an announcement from the City of Edmonton, where 1,600 people were laid off on Monday.
There are still numerous operations still going on at City Hall, such as building services, so people can still get permits for renovations.
Nenshi said everyone still at the city is working extremely hard, with over 10 per cent working from home now as well. But they have also taken a significant hit as many more are staying home sick or self-isolating.
For example, the transportation department normally sees about 200 people away on a given week due to average sickness or vacation days. Now, that number is up to 600 or 700.
In addition, Calgary Transit is seeing a major financial shortfall due to plummeting ridership.
“It’s real big,” said Nenshi. “We are down about sixty per cent ridership on the bus fleet, about eighty per cent on the train.”
“It’s in the order of six to eight million dollars a month,” added Duckworth.
With that, there are no plans to extend normal transit passes into April, after the City said low-income transit passes for March will stay valid until April 30. Nenshi is encouraging the remaining passengers to continue paying their fares so that the situation does not get worse.
Ultimately, it creates a wider issue for Calgary as the city is not able to have a deficit in the budget, so Nenshi said they have to keep a close eye on it and figure out how to make money back at the end of the year.
Another message was also passed along about the need to continue practicing physical distancing guidelines.
Nenshi said it is good to go out and get exercise, as long as you stay spread out, and encourages people to stay in their neighbourhood rather than drive somewhere so they can walk. Also, if you are on an isolation order you should not be venturing outside of your home.
Calgary Emergency Management Agency Chief Tom Sampson said people were doing good over the weekend while using parks and pathways, and one thing that helped was closing off some road lanes so that pedestrians could spread out further and take advantage of reduced traffic.
However, there are still some compliance issues — such as children using closed-off playgrounds — and if it continues, they may be forced to begin strictly enforcing the rules.
“Our whole thing right now is to spread the word, so we don’t spread the virus,” said Sampson.
He said they are focusing on education at the moment, so parents need to stress the need to their children to listen to these guidelines.
“It’s about talking to people and having them understand that you, the citizens of Calgary, can determine whether or not we have luck pushing this virus down or whether we have a problem,” he said. “And I ensure you that we will have a problem if you don’t physically space if you don’t wash your hands.”
“I never thought that, in the middle of this pandemic, one of the things we would be thinking about is playground police to pull the children off the swings,” added Nenshi.
Sampson agreed there’s no need for playground cops right now, as long as the compliance gets better.
He added that anecdotal reports of people being ticketed for not practicing physical distancing are false, and he is not aware of a bylaw or police officers issuing fines for that.
Finally, on questions about how the homeless can be helped during the crisis, Nenshi said they are doing everything they can at the moment, but decisions on overflow housing will have to come largely from the provincial level.
Some shelters are extending their hours to keep people safe during the day, but there is still a concern around a lack of bathrooms and other public space due to the closure of libraries or cafes or restaurants.
“This is just something that we are continuing to try to adjust to while making sure that everyone stays safe,” added Nenshi.
Earlier plans to use hotels as overflow space were cancelled by the province, despite local hoteliers enthusiastically coming out in support of helping.
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