• The committee needs to be reminded of the important role unions play in protecting the rights, incomes and safety of working people in Alberta.
• Far from being a drag on profitability, unions actually improve the "bottom line" by boosting morale, reducing turn-over and enhancing productivity. Happy, secure workers are better workers.
• Alberta already has a system that makes it very difficult for workers to form or join unions. Any move to set the bar even higher would constitute an unreasonable restriction on freedom of association.

• In two separate cases, the Supreme Court of Canada recently ruled that prohibitions against union organizing in the agricultural sector and secondary picketing in all sectors are unconstitutional. These decisions confirm what the labour movement has been saying for years – namely that bans on organizing and picket violate the rights guaranteed under the Charter of Rights to free association and free expression.
• As a result of the high court’s ruling, the Alberta government has no choice but to remove these prohibitions from the provincial Code.
• Making these changes cannot be fairly characterized as "concessions" to labour. The government cannot say they’ve "given" unions something (i.e. secondary picket and rights for agricultural workers) and, therefore they need to "give" employers something in return. The right to organize and picket belongs to workers under the Charter – these rights were never the Alberta government’s to give (or take away).

• Arguments about "salting" and "merfing" are nothing more than thinly veiled attempts to whip up anti-union sentiment in support of legal changes that would tip the playing field even more unfairly in favour of employers.
• "Salting" involves union activists taking jobs with non-union firms with the goal of convincing workers at those firms to join a union. But no one forces employers to hire these workers. And, at the end of the day, all non-union workers have free will to either support or oppose union membership. Does the government really think it should be a crime to talk about union membership? Isn’t that a serious infringement on the right held by all Canadians to freedom of expression?
• "Merfing" involves unions and unionized employers in the construction industry working together to lower costs and win business. This is not unlike the deals made every day between businesses and suppliers in pursuit of new contracts. Should Merit companies really be given special legislative protection because they can’t compete with unionized firms?
• Are the proposals for change advocated by the Merit Contractors really about "leveling the playing field" – or they about finding a backdoor way to bust union and undermine the right that all Canadian workers have to bargain collectively?

Proposals for reform