For Immediate Release:

May 26, 2000

Support Striking Health Care Workers!
Drop the Charges!

People's Needs,
Not Privatization & Corporate Greed!

"The strike by 11,000 angry and frustrated health care workers deserves the full support and solidarity of all Canadians who care about the future of medicare and free collective bargaining in this country," said CPC leader Miguel Figueroa, in Edmonton today.

"For Ralph Klein, driving down wages, beating up public employees, and busting unions is the flip side of privatizing health care and invoking closure on the labour and democratic rights of Albertans. That's because it's the heroic efforts of public sector health care providers, struggling to maintain quality service delivery to every patient everywhere in the province, despite the attacks on health care – who are the frontline opponents of privatized medicine in Alberta, and the frontline defenders of medicare in Canada," he said.

"A victory for the Alberta Union of Public Employees today will be a blow to Klein and the for-profit health care corporations just waiting to take over the public hospitals and facilities built with public funds, and staffed with public employees who – after years of cheap wages and contracts – are even more determined to fight for a living wage and decent conditions – in unionized, publicly owned and operated facilities," he said.

"The news that tentative agreements have been reached on the basis of substantial wage concessions by the employers, is welcome news and a tribute to the militance, unity, and determination of AUPE members who have had to defy unjust and undemocratic labour laws put in place by the same governments that forced Bill 11 onto Albertans," he said.

"But the news that AUPE and its President Dan MacLennan may be held liable for contempt charges relating to the strike, and be subject to fines, decertification and jail terms, is shocking and repulsive. It is the proof that the Klein government's real agenda is union-busting, and its real target is the AUPE which, together with organized labour and public opinion, is the last major obstacle to the privatization of health care in Alberta after the passage of Bill 11," he said.

"The CPC calls on the provincial government to immediately drop all charges against the union, its President and officers, and to uphold the right of all workers to free collective bargaining in Alberta. The Klein government must amend its anti-labour legislation, and commit sufficient health care transfers to fund adequate wage, benefit and job security packages for health care workers. Further, the Alberta government's Bill 11 which will privatize medicare in Alberta with wide-ranging effects Canada-wide, must be stayed by an order from the Prime Minister, while the federal government enacts legislation to kill Bill 11 and stop the Klein government in its tracks," Figueroa said.

"We salute the courage and determination of AUPE health care workers, and pledge our full support to their continuing struggle for job security, fair wages, dignity and respect, in a well-funded and unionized, public health care system. The strike and on-going struggle by AUPE members is a key part of the fight to win a new political agenda that serves people's needs, not corporate profit and greed," he said.

© 2000 Communist Party of Canada