FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: June 8, 2001Paramedics’ strike demonstrates why denying right At the end of the dispute between the City of Edmonton and City paramedics, the President of the Alberta Federation of Labour stated that the strike demonstrates that banning strikes by health care workers is not in the public interest. "The provincial government fanned the flames of this dispute by trying to take away the paramedics’ right to strike," says Les Steel. "Their actions actually made a strike more likely." "The government has been threatening to expand its essential service legislation, taking away the legal right to strike from thousands of other workers. This move clearly runs against the public interest." Steel explained that banning a strike removes any incentive for the employer to bargain fairly. Without the option of a strike, there is nothing workers can do to compel the employer to negotiate. "The threat of a strike is one of the few tools a worker has in the bargaining process. Without it there is nothing they can do to compel the employer to work toward a fair settlement." "Without the possibility of strike, the employer holds all the cards, and usually tries to play them to full effect." The result, Steel says, is that important issues such as public safety and understaffing do not get dealt with at the bargaining table. "When a strike is forbidden, the issues of understaffing and worker safety get lost. The employer doesn’t like talking about these kind of issues, and usually won’t if there is any excuse to get away from it." Steel adds that government action taking away the right to strike antagonizes workers and makes Alberta’s labour relations climate more stormy. "The paramedics got really mad when the Minister swept away their right to strike. It made them more determined." Steel also observes that legislation unfairly puts workers in a difficult situation. To get a fair contract, they have to break the law, which turns law-abiding, hard working Albertans into criminals. "If the Minister is concerned about the public interest, he should be removing essential service legislation entirely and allow the process of fair collective bargaining to proceed unhindered," said Steel. "The government should stop giving the employers a wall to hide behind. Make them come out and bargain fairly." For more information call: |