Booming Alberta crippled by wildcat strikes by frustrated tradesmen - Canadian Press, Oilweek Magazine
Alberta‘s booming construction landscape is being disrupted with pickets and protests as a complicated labour law that hobbles building trade unions from striking is being attacked by hundreds of workers.
The giant Petro-Canada upgrader project in Edmonton was crippled for several days last week after unionized workers refused to cross picket lines set up by carpenters and other tradesman seeking higher wages but unable to stage a legal strike.
Alberta legislation passed two decades ago says that if 75 per cent of the province‘s two dozen building trade unions have settled their contracts, the others must follow suit without a strike or lockout _ using an arbitrator if necessary.
Most of the trades have already settled, but the carpenters, roofers, and plumbers and pipefitters are holdouts. The provincial labour board has filed a cease and desist order against the wildcat strikes and the labour minister has set up a tribunal to arbitrate a contract settlement.