The Edmonton Public School Board (EPSB) requested and received a disputes inquiry board (DIB) from the United Conservative Party government after CUPE Local 3550, the union that represents educational support staff in EPSB, were set to go on strike on Oct. 24. This follows the same tactic being used on CUPE locals representing public and Catholic school support staff in Fort McMurray in September after both voted overwhelmingly in support of job action.
So what is a DIB and why are the UCP so fond of them? It’s a provincial body that provides non-binding recommendations for resolving a labour dispute within 30 days. By sending a dispute to a DIB before job action occurs, the UCP government forces union members back to work, with the locals having the option of holding a new strike vote within 72 hours of the DIB’s decision, usually within 30 days.
“It's really just a delay tactic,” explains Bob Barnetson, a labour studies academic at Athabasca University.
“It allows the employer time to hire scabs, or otherwise prepare itself for work stoppage, and it can undermine the unions, not so much the solidarity of the members, but the momentum that the union has when everybody’s ready to go on strike.”
Image from a CUPE rally held on May 11.
If a DIB is established after a strike begins, the job action is permitted to continue, “so the timing of when they send a dispute to a DIB matters from the government's perspective,” Barnetson added.
CUPE 3550, which represents more than 3000 educational support staff at Edmonton Public School Board, voted overwhelmingly in support of a strike with 97 per cent of members voting in favour of a strike with 92 per cent of eligible voting members turning out to vote.
CUPE Local 2545, which represents support staff at the Fort McMurray Public School Division, and CUPE Local 2559, which represents support staff at the Fort McMurray Catholic Board of Education, were set to strike on Sept. 17 after 98.6 per cent of their combined membership voted in favour of job action, with 81.3 per cent turnout.
Instead, the night before, the provincial government appointed two DIBs to serve as “another mediator to the parties in these disputes,” in the words of Minister of Jobs, Economy and Trade Matt Jones.
CUPE maintains that the government’s decision to send the Fort Mac education workers’ disputes to DIBs before they took job action violates their Charter-protected right to strike, which was upheld by the Supreme Court of Canada in 2015.
CUPE workers at Fort Mac’s Catholic schools haven’t received a raise since 2015 and make less than their public school board counterparts. The public school workers haven’t received a raise since a 1.25 per cent pay bump in 2020. Edmonton support staff have also not received a significant wage increase in nearly a decade with the average income of CUPE 3550 members being between $27,000 and $30,000. The current offer for CUPE 3550 workers from the government is 2.75 per cent over four years. That’s a zero per cent increase in the first two years, 1.25 per cent in the third year, and 1.5 per cent in the fourth year.
A spokesperson for Finance Minister Nate Horner has depicted the government as being entirely neutral in all of these disputes, which they said are strictly between the CUPE locals and their respective school boards.
But this doesn’t square with reality. According to an Oct. 4 letter CUPE Alberta president Rory Gill sent to the finance minister, a Provincial Compensation and Bargaining Office employee has been a constant presence at the bargaining table.
The UCP’s 2019 Public Sector Employers’ Act empowers the finance minister to establish “fiscal limits the employer must operate within when engaging in collective bargaining.”
“Essentially, the government here is trying to use the school board as a human shield to evade responsibility for job action that is being caused directly by the mandate created by the government,” Barnetson explained.
In his letter to Horner, Gill noted that the mandate has constrained negotiations to such an extent that “one employer simply included a link to your legislation as their wage proposal.”
On Oct. 16, the DIBs recommended a 3.5 per cent wage increase for 2024, with 2.75 per cent retroactive to Feb. 1 and 0.75 per cent retroactive to Aug. 31, for both public and Catholic employees.
The public DIB rejected the government’s effort to impose a two-tiered wage structure for new employees.
Neither employer has committed to accepting the DIB’s recommendations.
The day after the DIBs announced their recommendations for the Fort Mac locals, CUPE Local 2550, which represents workers at Edmonton public schools, voted 97 per cent in favour of striking, with a 92 per cent turnout. The Fort McMurray education support staff union locals have not yet given a strike notice.
CUPE Local 474, which represents Edmonton public school custodial and maintenance workers, have also voted to strike but haven’t set a strike date yet.
It remains to be seen whether a DIB will become the UCP’s weapon of choice for forcing employees back to work.
The federal government used an even blunter method to force striking railway workers back to work in August.
Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon ordered the Canada Industrial Relations Board to impose an arbitrated settlement on the Teamsters in its concurrent disputes with Canadian National Railway and Canadian Pacific Kansas City.
Arbitration is binding, unlike DIB recommendations, but this carries its own set of risks for the government, according to Barnetson. “The arbitrator may well side with the workers and give them a massive pay increase. Of course, the government doesn't want that precedent set,” said Barnetson.
Back to work legislation is another tactic that governments have used to force striking workers back to work. As these labour disputes develop that option becomes more and more likely.