CUPE members nervous about upcoming Alberta budget
With Alberta's provincial budget looming, public sector workers in Alberta are angry and worried over the way unions have been targeted by the premier.
About 250 members of CUPE are holding a convention in Calgary this week and union leaders are using the time to plan their strategy.
"There's a lot of anger, there's a lot of frustration and there's a lot of fear out there," said D 'Arcy Lanovaz, business agent for CUPE Local 38.
Their strategy is to fight the perception that public sector wages are partly to blame for the government's $7 billion budget hole.
"You know, trying to lay the blame on Albertans for the current economic crisis makes no sense," Lanovaz said. "It's the Conservative government frankly, that has mismanaged the economy."
'No more cuts'
The premier has said he'll be looking for cooperation and support from public sector unions to deal with the budget deficit, but the message from CUPE is clear.
"The message is 'no more cuts; no more cuts to front-line public sector workers," CUPE Alberta president Marle Roberts said.
Political analyst Melanee Thomas says unions need to deliver the message ahead of the budget and the election.
"This is a big ideas debate and so to be part of that one would automatically expect that the unions would have something to say about this, because really what they're representing are individuals where the path that the government takes will directly affect the front-lines," Thomas said.
"So this is their niche and I would expect them to speak strongly to that particular issue."
The unions will get a chance to deliver their message directly to the premier during a meeting in Edmonton Thursday. The premier says he's looking forward to a respectful discussion, but says hundreds of job cuts in the private sector this week highlight the problem.
"It underscores the challenges that we face as a province, the challenge we face in terms of our public finances, the need to tighten our belts in government and the needs to come up with long-term, sustainable solutions for all of this," Prentice said.
