Alberta’s union movement is flirting with a tactic its leaders say would be “big, bold and unprecedented.” but they are not ready to flip the switch yet.
Thet week, Union leaders promised an “unprecedented response” to the provincial government’s decision to use the Charter’s notwithstanding clause to force striking teachers to return to work.
Days later, supporters and media gathered at Blacksmiths Hall in Edmonton to learn more about what the Alberta Federation of Labor had up its sleeve.
But if one expected concrete plans for a province-wide strike, as AFL president Gil McGowan said, had hinted was under consideration, the press conference that followed laid out a longer road ahead.
“General strike?” read one of the many evasive signs on stage.
McGowan has said The union movement needed more time to talk to union leaders and non-union workers about the possibility of implementing a general strike, in which people from various fields would refuse to work.
tThere is still a lot to work on almost a week later.
“If we’re going to do it, it has to be so big and with so many people involved, that it would be difficult for the government to arrest and fine everyone.” McGowan said CBC Radio Alberta at noon features Kathleen Petty on Tuesday.
“To protect the people involved, it has to be big, bold and unprecedented, and that’s exactly what we’re working to organize.”
Jason Foster, professor of human resources and labor relations at Athabasca University, said this moment is significant for Alberta’s labor movement.
“Alberta has an active and militant labor history … but it’s been much quieter in the last 20 or 30 years,” he said.
“And that’s why, I think, that makes the teachers’ strike and all the fallout that’s been happening in the days since pretty significant.”
But as history shows, maintaining the initial momentum won’t be a walk in the park, and Alberta’s job landscape poses its own challenges.
Lower union membership in Alberta
Alberta has long had the lowest percentage of unionized workers in the country.
In 2024, just over 23 per cent of Albertans aged 15 and older were covered by a collective bargaining agreement.
That put Alberta last in Canada, behind provinces with strong unions like Newfoundland and Labrador and Quebec, where rates are close to 40 per cent.
The national average is about 30 percent.
Compared to other provinces, Alberta’s labor movement has been smaller and less unified. That has minimized some of their ability to be able to mobilize more broadly, Foster said.
Still, Foster noted that almost one in four workers in the province belongs to a union.
“Despite the relatively small size, it is still a large enough number of people to have a profound economic and political impact on the province,” he said.
Taking advantage of the momentum
McGowan has said the AFL, an umbrella group of 24 public and private sector unions representing 175,000 workers, has joined other unions under the Common Front coalition, which he says represents almost 400,000 workers.
speaking in Alberta at noon, McGowan said the AFL was “developing new muscles” and said unions were democratic organisations.
“We have to go back to our boards; we have to go back to our membership. I’m actually looking forward to that process, and it’s already underway,” he said.
Alberta Federation of Labor president Gil McGowan will consider organizing a general strike “if necessary” to challenge the UCP government. McGowan said the Alberta government’s use of the notwithstanding clause to end the teachers’ strike has galvanized the province’s unions.
Some feel the rhetoric has already gone too far, including Joseph Marchand, a professor of economics at the University of Alberta, who noted that the province has recently signed several important salary contracts.
“For the sake of our shared democracy and for the future of our province, I’m glad I didn’t hear any of that today. [from McGowan]”Marchand said in Alberta at noon. “I really think it’s necessary to tone this down a bit. There’s no war here.”
Moving forward, Foster said momentum will be everything.
“What we’ve learned from history is that you can have these moments of galvanizing forces, but is there momentum there?” said.
“Can you maintain that for weeks and months? And that’s the big question right now.”
