Union ads denounce new labour legislation
Last Updated: Thursday, June 19, 2008 | 12:03 PM ET
CBC News
A new union commercial says Alberta's Bill 26 will take away pension and health benefits from workers. (International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers)An Alberta union is taking to the airwaves to fight the Conservative government's new provincial labour legislation.
"You work hard, pay your taxes and contribute to pension and health plans your family counts on," says an announcer in a TV ad over images of workers in hard hats.
"The last thing you need is a government that puts your job, pension and benefits at risk. But that's exactly what the Conservative government has just done," continues the commercial paid for by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.
The ad is aimed at Bill 26, the first changes made to Alberta's labour code in 20 years, and pushed through in the last week of the spring session by the Tories who limited debate on it.
The new legislation will prevent unions from subsidizing contract bids by unionized contractors competing with non-union firms.
'I don't think that anybody voting for the Conservatives expected that they were going to attack working people like this.'—Tim Brower, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers
Tim Brower, business manager of IBEW Local 424, said the bill will mean hundreds of working Albertans lose the pension benefits and health coverage they receive by working at a unionized job site.
"What's really, really sad here is that by taking away those pensions and the health and welfare benefits for these workers, what this is going to do is put more of a burden on an already overstressed social safety net," he said Wednesday.
"I don't think that anybody voting for the Conservatives expected that they were going to attack working people like this."
The union hopes the ads will motivate people to call their MLA and prevent the bill from being proclaimed into law or to lobby the government to bring in changes to moderate its impact.
Brower said he doesn't think the bill is payback for an ad campaign against Premier Ed Stelmach that was paid for by Alberta unions during the spring provincial election because the proposed legislation has been around since 2002.
Brower would not disclose the cost of the ads, but they will be broadcast in Alberta for the next several weeks.
