The Alberta Federation of Labour struck out against comments made by Human Resources and Employment Minister Clint Dunford during the Labour Day weekend.

"The AFL takes the Minister’s comments as a threat to our fundamental right to strike," said AFL President Les Steel. "He is being warned that any move to ban or replace the right to strike will spark a swift and strong reaction from working people."

In an interview with the Edmonton Journal, Dunford said that he considered strikes "archaic" and wants to replace them. He wants other methods to replace "the archaic nature of strikes and lockouts as being the way to resolve disputes."

"In my mind, we have to look for some other ways. To simply remove the right to strike removes a large leverage tool that a union … has in place. So somehow that would have to be replaced," Dunford was quoted.

The Minister mused that an alternative might be a beefed up version of final offer arbitration, where each party submits a final offer and an arbitrator chooses between them, selecting one or the other.

Steel criticized the Minister’s proposal as unworkable and inherently biased in favour of the employer.

"The Minister exposes a fundamental misunderstanding of labour relations. He forgets that the only tool workers have in labour relations is the right to withdraw their services," said Steel.

"Workers will strike when necessary, no matter what Dunford wants them to do."

The AFL intends to send the Minister a very strong message that when the Labour Relations Code is opened up for review next year that no consideration of restricting or replacing the right to strike will be tolerated.

"The right to strike is a democratic right, it is not for the Minister to fiddle with whenever the mood strikes him."