Labour unions across Alberta are uniting in opposition to a surprise attack by the federal Liberals on the right to strike—an attack that Alberta Federation of Labour president Gil McGowan says is “worse than what Danielle Smith did to the teachers.”
Canadian Labour Congress President Bea Bruske speaks out against bill C-39 at a press conference. Image from the CPAC live stream, September 22, 2026.
The protests are directed at the Building Canada Act, a section of a hefty omnibus bill that is presently working its way through Parliament as bill C-39.
The Building Canada Act adjusts and formalizes powers that the federal government previously accessed through section 107 of the Canada Labour Code.
Section 107 has been used with increasing frequency by the federal government to break strikes. Since 2023, section 107 has been invoked to break or pre-empt strikes by port workers in Vancouver and Montreal, by postal workers, by rail workers, and by workers with Air Canada.
These invocations of section 107 drew immediate legal challenge which is still in progress. They also provoked direct disobedience: when the federal government tried to use section 107 to end the Air Canada strike, those workers simply refused. They won modest concessions after continuing the strike illegally.
Historically, for the federal government to break a strike it typically needed to enact back-to-work legislation. This required going to Parliament and acting openly in public view. Section 107, and the new powers in C-39 that will replace it, avoid this, giving the feds the authority to break strikes by decree.
Prime Minister Mark Carney falsely claimed on Tuesday that the bill "absolutely reinforces the right to strike." It does not. As written, the legislation will reinforce cabinet's authority to pre-empt or break strikes.
In a release on Tuesday, the Alberta Federation of Labour (AFL) urged the Liberals to back down, arguing that the thick of Donald Trump’s trade war would be a terrible time to break down labour peace in Canada.
“By favouring investors over workers, Prime Minister Carney risks fracturing the coalition needed to stand up to Donald Trump,” wrote AFL president Gil McGowan. McGowan elaborated on this argument today in a video interview with Markham Hislop.
The Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), which represents over 30,000 workers across the public service, made a similar argument in a release Monday.
“We will not win this trade war or make Canada stronger by stripping away the Charter rights of our own people,” wrote CUPE national president Mark Hancock.
CUPE went a step further on Wednesday, affirming that if the federal government attempts to use C-39 on them, they, like the Air Canada workers, will simply not comply.
In fact there have been so many announcements of opposition to C-39 this week that it’s tricky to fit them all in this article. The Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) called it “unacceptable” on Wednesday. The United Steelworkers (USW) declared on Tuesday that the right to strike is “a red line.” Unifor warned on Tuesday that C-39 will infringe upon Charter rights. And nurses, through the Canadian Federation of Nurses’ Unions, declared on Wednesday that they are united in opposition to the strike provisions in C-39 as well.
The Canadian Labour Congress—also opposed to the C-39 changes—are presently running an online petition against C-39 to identify support, which is a way that other workers who are not with a union can sign on to the campaign.
As an unusually large omnibus bill, C-39 contains many sections touching on issues other than strikes. Portions of the bill that would fast-track resource extraction projects and weaken environmental protections have drawn heavy opposition from both Indigenous and environmental groups.
While federal New Democratic Party (NDP) leader Avi Lewis strongly condemned the anti-strike provisions of C-39 on Monday, neither Alberta’s ruling United Conservative Party or the opposition Alberta NDP have released any statement regarding its impact on the right to strike.