Section 88 of Bill 43, the proposed new Post-Secondary Learning Act, will prohibit strikes and lockouts in public post-secondary institutions.  ACIFA’s Presidents’ Council has taken a strong stand against this provision, which it interprets as an unwarranted attack on the collective bargaining rights of every member association.

The following are excerpts from a letter from the President of ACIFA, Bert Giles, to the Minister of Learning, Dr. Lyle Oberg, dated June 4, 2003, urging him to withdraw Section 88:

       Section 88, which imposes arbitrary restrictions on existing collective agreements freely negotiated in good faith, represents an unprecedented and unwarranted attack on the collective bargaining rights of faculty in our system

   In our view, Section 88 constitutes a clear violation of international conventions on freedom of association principles, as set out as recently as March 2003, in a series of rulings by the International Labour Organization (ILO) on complaints concerning several pieces of legislation passed by the government of British Columbia.  These rulings, which centre on public sector workers’ rights of freedom of association and collective bargaining, unequivocally reject legislative restrictions on the bargaining process and uphold the autonomy of bargaining partners in reaching negotiated settlements.  (Report of the ILO Committee on Freedom of Association, March 2003, Cases 2166, 2173, 2180 and 2196)

   A legislated prohibition of strike action by academic staff members can only have a negative impact on the labour relations climate in our sector.  No other jurisdiction in Canada has enacted such a drastic measure, which will do significant and lasting damage to the reputation of Alberta’s post-secondary system, and create a bar to the recruitment of world-class scholars and teachers to our province.

   Moreover, we are unaware of any actions or circumstances which necessitate or justify the inclusion in the proposed Post-Secondary Learning academic staff members of an express prohibition on strike action by academic staff members.  It appears that neither the Board Chairs, nor the Presidents, of institutions in our sector, included a demand for such a prohibition in their submissions to the Ministry during the consultation process preceding the tabling of Bill 43.

    We do not accept that Section 88 can be justified by the need for consistency or uniformity throughout the post-secondary system, where currently only one academic staff association retains the right to strike under the terms of its collective agreement.  Other associations have bargained away this right freely, and, consistent with principles of free collective bargaining, should remain free to bargain it back again.

    ACIFA is united in its opposition to the provisions of Section 88 of Bill 43.  The right to strike of academic staff associations in our sector is fundamental, and should not be legislated away.  We view this Section as unnecessary, unjustified, and damaging to the integrity of the post-secondary system in Alberta, and again we urge you to withdraw it before Bill 43 is passed.

Section 88 is not yet law; ACIFA continues to lobby the government to delete it from the amended Bill.  Member associations have been encouraged to take up the issue, too, in a concerted campaign to communicate our strong opposition to this infringement of the free collective bargaining rights of post-secondary academic staff.