EDMONTON, AB – Bill 28, the Municipal Affairs and Housing Statutes Amendment Act, is the newest attempt by the UCP to control municipalities and the public services Albertans rely on.

“For a provincial government whose favourite gripe with the federal government is about ‘overreach,’ they sure do love taking control away from municipalities,” said Raj Uppal, CUPE Alberta President.

Bill 28 allows the UCP government to compel “a municipality to transfer ownership or control of a municipal public utility to a public utility entity.”

“We know that privatization always comes hand in hand with higher costs, less oversight, and with outsourcing concerns for workers,” Uppal continued.

“In an environment where we’re seeing a troubling trend of privatization of utilities, the government paving the way to taking control and oversight away from democratically elected municipal officials raises a major concern for all municipal workers, elected officials, and residents.”

“Maybe Danielle Smith should take her own advice and ‘stay in her lane.’”

EDMONTON, AB – CUPE Alberta is raising serious concerns about new legislation introduced today that will require the physical segregation of certain public library materials and mandate parental permission for youth under 16 to borrow them.

Bill 28 would apply to public libraries across the province, and would restrict citizens’ access even to materials aimed at adults. According to Minister of Public Affairs Dan Williams, books his government deems too “graphic” will be required to be placed “behind a counter.”

CUPE Alberta President Raj Uppal says the legislation is ill-conceived and ignores the realities facing public libraries across the province.

“Clearly, this is another instance of the government creating unnecessary legislation with no thought as to how it would be implemented,” said Uppal. “Public libraries are already stretched thin, and this bill downloads significant new responsibilities onto library workers without any plan or support.”

The legislation comes with no additional funding, despite the expectation that libraries will likely need to undertake costly renovations and hire additional staff to comply with the new requirements. This could include building new, patron-inaccessible areas to store materials and the creation of an identification verification process.

“We would prefer if the government focused on solving real problems facing Albertans, rather than chasing social media outrage and conspiracy-driven policy ideas,” Uppal added.

CUPE Alberta emphasized that library workers are trained professionals who are already well-equipped to support their communities and manage access to materials appropriately.

“CUPE library staff are capable of addressing concerns as they arise,” said Uppal. “They do not need heavy-handed direction from this government to do their jobs.”

The bill also introduces government-appointed library inspectors, who will have the authority to investigate libraries based on a single complaint, raising further concerns about overreach and the potential for politically motivated enforcement.

“Instead of supporting public libraries as vital community spaces, this government is undermining them with vague rules and intrusive oversight,” said Uppal. “Albertans deserve better.”

Calgary, AB – CUPE 8125, representing approximately 360 WestJet Encore cabin crew members, has officially served Notice to Bargain a new Collective Agreement.

“We’re seeking an end to unpaid work, to resolve ongoing scheduling issues, and better wages for our members,” said Jennifer Wielohorski-Kuhnert, WestJet Encore Unit Vice President. “It comes down to this: flight attendants deserve to be paid for every hour on the job.”

CUPE 8125 President Alia Hussain emphasized that this round of bargaining comes at a time when cabin crew across the WestJet Group are pushing for meaningful change.

“WestJet mainline flight attendants have been in bargaining since September 2025, raising many of the same core issues of unpaid work, scheduling, and fair compensation,” said Hussain. “Encore flight attendants are now joining that push to ensure that all cabin crew across the company are treated fairly and compensated for the full scope of their work.”

Hussain added, “We look forward to bargaining a collective agreement that reflects the value of the work our cabin safety professionals perform every day. Our members keep passengers safe, manage emergencies, and deliver frontline service, and yet too much of their time remains unpaid.”

“Our message to WestJet is clear and consistent across the group,” said Hussain. “Pay us fairly. Pay us for all our time.”

The following delegates were elected: 

Alberta NDP leader Naheed Nenshi and five of his MLAs visited the CUPE Alberta convention. In his remarks, promising that if the NDP is elected, education funding will go from worst in the country to first.  

“We are going to take back Alberta,” said Nenshi.  “We will fix health care, go from having the worst funded to best funded education system in the country.” 

We will have a government that respects municipal government, respects people, and respects public services.” 

Nenshi praised CUPE Alberta’s “Health Care Crisis” campaign, calling it “one of the most effective things I’ve ever seen,” saying it is bringing out thousands of stories and that it is ‘helping to bring this government down.”

CUPE will put $500,000 into a campaign to punish the Danielle Smith government for using the notwithstanding clause against workers and others. 

Secretary Treasurer Candace Rennick made the announcement at CUPE Alberta’s convention. Rennick said the union decided to contribute to a campaign with the Canadian Labour Congress.  

“Danielle Smith used the notwithstanding clause against Alberta teachers to end their strike and trample their constitutional rights. And there is no doubt that she will use it again,” said Rennick. “But there must be consequences for stepping on fundamental rights. Consequences on the streets, and most importantly, consequences at the ballot box.” 

Rennick said governments that weaken public services, who roll back rights, and who try to divide workers can be defeated, but only if CUPE is ‘all in.’ 

“Every local, every sector, must step up. Every local must engage every member, every day. And the national union must not only be there to lead and support – it must coordinate, strategize, and stand shoulder to shoulder with every local to ensure no one is left behind.” 

Rennick noted that CUPE added 8.5 new permanent positions in Alberta over the last five years, compared to just five new positions in the previous ten years.  

“These investments ensure that locals, sectors, and members have resources, support, and leadership to organize, campaign, and defend public services.”

Reaching into labour history to find lessons for today, CUPE President Mark Hancock told delegates that unions have faced difficult times before and come out stronger for it. 

“Some of the greatest achievements that organized labour has ever won came during moments of turmoil – just like the one we find ourselves in right now,” said Hancock.  

Hancock pointed to battles after the first and second world wars when unions didn’t have the legal recognition they have today, but still won bargaining rights, the Rand formula, pensions, health care, and basic health and safety standards. 

“It wasn’t easy,” said Hancock. “So many leaders and activists before us were fired, jailed, assaulted, even murdered.” 

Hancock noted that in the last year alone, both the federal and Alberta governments took multiple actions to rob workers of rights we’ve enjoyed for decades. 

“Mark Carney didn’t hesitate to shred our members’ Charter rights during the Air Canada strike last summer. And he won’t lift a finger to defend public health care and our public services while they’re under attack right here in Alberta as we speak.” 

“The UCP is busy pushing dangerous schemes that nobody asked for and nobody wants, like pulling Alberta out of the CPP and playing footsy with Maple MAGA Trump wannabes who want to split our country apart.” 

Hancock said that being a trade unionist in a time of ‘right-wing lunatics’ means acknowledging the challenge and never giving up ‘on the fight for a better future.’ 

Referring to the safety of workers as “not optional,” Hancock noted that the death of CUPE member Deborah Onwu in 2019 led to four judicial recommendations that the UCP government has still not acted on. 

“We owe it to people like Deborah Onwu and her friends and family – and far too many others who have lost loved ones because of violence in our workplaces,” said Hancock, “We owe it to them to fight like hell.” 

Hancock ended with an appeal to delegates to not be fooled by Danielle Smith’s attempts to divide workers with ‘non-stop culture wars and manufactured outrage.’ 

“When governments fail to solve real problems that they’re responsible for creating – they start looking for somebody else to pin the blame on. Blaming newcomers and other vulnerable folks just lets her off the hook.” 

EDMONTON, AB – How many times can Alberta conservatives make the same mistake building schools?

That’s a question posed by the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE Alberta) today as the Alberta government announces it will again use public-private partnerships (P3s) to build schools. The government has twice abandoned this model in the past.

CUPE Alberta President Raj Uppal pointed out that the conservative government used P3s to build schools up to 2014, and then abandoned the model. They tried again in 2019 and changed direction once more in 2022.

Under a P3 model, the government initially pays less for the construction of a school, and then pays a form of rent over several decades that costs taxpayers much more in the long run. P3s also lead to accountability problems with the maintenance and upkeep of the building. The model keeps a lot of debt ‘off book’ and is therefore attractive to the UCP, who are battling a huge deficit despite record royalty revenues.

“P3s don’t work unless you want to pay off private developers who are friends of the government,” said Uppal. “A government that is already soaked in scandal for giving sweet contracts to friends for ‘Turkish Tylenol’ should probably be more careful.”

“Alberta abandoned this model twice before. Other provinces have abandoned it too. Taxpayers will be robbed for schools that should just be built the conventional, safe way.”

EDMONTON – With almost six times the royalty revenue of the last government, the UCP are raising taxes, running deficits and cutting services.

CUPE Alberta President Raj Uppal says Alberta deserves a new approach.

“For the last six years, the UCP slashed corporate taxes, underfunded education, underfunded health care, cut post-secondary funding, and cut municipal funding,” said Uppal. “In yesterday’s budget, we have a huge deficit, tax increases, and they’ve still not reversed their own cuts to education and health care.”

“There’s a crisis in health care, but no new funding for hospitals or primary care. Classrooms are overcrowded, but no funding for a single new public school.”

Uppal noted that Albertans will pay an additional $360 million in increased taxes and fees while corporate taxes remain the same.

The almost $10 billion deficit wipes out the surpluses of previous years that were themselves built on cuts to key services.

“Today’s budget just shows, again, that the UCP are incompetent managers of our money and our public services.”

Key areas of concern:

• Alberta still has the lowest funding for education of any province.
• Property tax increase.
• Home care costs to increase by 2%.
• Increased taxes on hotel rooms and rental cars.
• Twenty-seven new tax and fee increases of 10% overall.
• An increase in certification cost for trades, including a $150 fees for Red Seal and entrance exams, where previously there was none. Previously, fees for a Blue seal were $50, trade qualifier was $60, and the apprenticeship education program was $35.
• The UCP is creating a 5^th entity to manage health care. Health Shared Services (HSS), to centralize corporate services between its four health agencies. How is this anything other than recreating AHS after they blew it up?
• No funding for new hospitals in Edmonton or Calgary.
• No new funding for primary health care, even with our hospitals in crisis.
• No funding for any new public schools.