Editorial: Shame on Redford
New union laws violate basic rights
Needless to say, making it illegal to just talk about striking is the kind of law one might expect in some banana republic or other oppressive totalitarian state.
Every opposition party opposes this legislation, but their voices could scarcely be heard on the issue as Redford limited debate on the legislation in the legislature.
“The Wildrose believes strongly in respecting the rule of law and upholding contracts including collective bargaining agreements,” Wildrose House Leader and Finance Critic Rob Anderson said in a written statement.
“Negotiating a collective bargaining agreement that is fair for taxpayers is an important goal; however, it does not give the government the right to terminate the legal arbitration rights of public sector employees.”
Exactly. Redford, who is a human rights lawyer, has clearly discarded what she learned when she helped Nelson Mandela work through changing the laws of post-Apartheid South Africa after he became that country’s first black president. That these bills passed third reading just one day before Mandela passed away on Thursday is both ironic and coincidental. It’s reasonable to assume that Mandela would be appalled by these laws that strip workers of their rights.
As Gil McGowan, president of the Alberta Federation of Labour, wrote in a column that ran in the Herald on Wednesday, “given the fact that there have only been four or five illegal strikes in Alberta over the past two decades, it’s hard to see a need for this kind of legislation.”
That Premier Redford actually has the gall to claim that among unionized workers “there’s an appreciation for what we’re trying to do,” is laughable.
Nobody believes that and no one can believe that a so-called human rights lawyer would allow such an abomination to the most fundamental right of any free and democratic
Editorial: Shame on Redford
New union laws violate basic rights
Needless to say, making it illegal to just talk about striking is the kind of law one might expect in some banana republic or other oppressive totalitarian state.
Every opposition party opposes this legislation, but their voices could scarcely be heard on the issue as Redford limited debate on the legislation in the legislature.
“The Wildrose believes strongly in respecting the rule of law and upholding contracts including collective bargaining agreements,” Wildrose House Leader and Finance Critic Rob Anderson said in a written statement.
“Negotiating a collective bargaining agreement that is fair for taxpayers is an important goal; however, it does not give the government the right to terminate the legal arbitration rights of public sector employees.”
Exactly. Redford, who is a human rights lawyer, has clearly discarded what she learned when she helped Nelson Mandela work through changing the laws of post-Apartheid South Africa after he became that country’s first black president. That these bills passed third reading just one day before Mandela passed away on Thursday is both ironic and coincidental. It’s reasonable to assume that Mandela would be appalled by these laws that strip workers of their rights.
As Gil McGowan, president of the Alberta Federation of Labour, wrote in a column that ran in the Herald on Wednesday, “given the fact that there have only been four or five illegal strikes in Alberta over the past two decades, it’s hard to see a need for this kind of legislation.”
That Premier Redford actually has the gall to claim that among unionized workers “there’s an appreciation for what we’re trying to do,” is laughable.
Nobody believes that and no one can believe that a so-called human rights lawyer would allow such an abomination to the most fundamental right of any free and democratic
Editorial: Shame on Redford
