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August 2007

Vol. 12, No. 34 Week of August 26, 2007

Alberta construction strike averted

Fears of strike action that could have derailed billions of dollars worth of construction work in the Alberta oil sands have eased dramatically.

Four of five unions, each of which voted overwhelmingly in support of a strike in July, negotiated tentative pacts that go to their combined 23,000 members for a ratification vote.

If the deal is approved by Sept. 11, the agreements offers retroactive pay and — in a key breakthrough for union negotiators — wages that are indexed to a rate higher than the raging inflation in Alberta.

The contract terms include pay hikes of 6.5 percent, 5 percent, 6.5 percent and 5 percent in each of the next four years, or increases equivalent to Alberta’s inflation rate plus 1 percent.

Union leaders: provisions ‘historic’

Union leaders say the provisions represent “historic” protection from the cost-of-living increases in Alberta — an issue one said was previously “taboo” in the province.

A spokesman for Construction Labor Relations Alberta, which bargains for 130 contractors, said that because the agreements are “fully inflation-protected” they will ensure a “good period of stability” in Alberta’s boom-time economy, provided they are endorsed.

A province-wide strike would have been the first to hit the province’s oil and gas industry since 1980 and would have occurred as Alberta embarks on what shapes up as the most prolonged period of large-scale construction activity in Canada.

But three unions — carpenters, laborers and roofers — are still involved in negotiations and seem headed for a strike vote.

However, ratification votes by the four trades which have accepted the new offer — electricians, plumbers and pipefitters, refrigeration mechanics and millwrights — will block any attempts to strike.

Alberta labor law bans strikes if 75 percent of the unions accept contracts terms. To date 15 of 25 unions have settled and four more would push the labor movement over the threshold.

—Gary Park






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