EDMONTON – The Alberta Federation of Labour president, Gil McGowan, delivered the following remarks this afternoon at a press conference at Ironworkers Hall in Edmonton, accompanied by Bea Bruske, president of the Canadian Labour Congress.

“Danielle Smith has awakened a sleeping giant. When she took the unprecedented step of using the Notwithstanding Clause to strip Alberta teachers of their democratic and constitutional rights, she galvanized unions in this province – and in this country – like never before.

She has given us clarity.

She has provided us with a rallying cry.

And she has given us a focal point.

We now have one common purpose.

And that purpose is to topple this government.

Not just for the sake of teachers.

Not just for the sake of bargaining rights.

But for the sake of our shared democracy and the future of our province!

Today, as a labour movement, we are committing to work with any and all of our fellow Albertans who agree with us that our rights, our democracy and our Canadian way of life will not be safe until we make Danielle Smith a radio host again, not a Premier.


We are also committing to do everything we can to throw sand in the gears of this government to stop them from implementing what is clearly a MAGA-style agenda – an agenda that Albertans did NOT vote for.

That agenda includes:

Starving our public schools while shoveling public money to private schools.

Fragmenting and under-staffing our health care system to pave the way for privatization.

Putting the retirement security of Albertans at risk by pulling our province out of the Canada Pension Plan.

Deepening our economic integration with Donald Trump’s America at the same time that he’s threatening to turn us into the 51st state.

Jumping into bed with separatists who have literally solicited money from the MAGA movement.

Making a mockery of our constitution by attacking fundamental democratic rights like the Freedom of Association and the Freedom of Expression.

And suppressing wages in Alberta, even as workers struggle with an unprecedented affordability crisis.

The Smith government is using its legislative majority to steamroll over the opposition.

They’re using the Notwithstanding clause to side-step the constitution and the courts.

That leaves citizen and civil society as the final bulwark against Danielle Smith’s dangerous agenda for our province.

No one is coming to rescue. It’s up to us.

To quote the poet June Jordan: ‘We are the ones we have been waiting for.’

In this fight, unions have a special responsibility.

We are one of the only institutions in Canadian civil society with the resources, the people and the organization necessary to stand up to political bullies.

Today, I’m committing, on behalf of the Alberta labour movement, that we will embrace that responsibility.

We will use ALL the tools at our disposal to make Danielle Smith and the UCP pay price for attacking teachers, public education and our democratic rights.

We will mobilize around recall campaigns.

If they won’t shrink the size of our classrooms, we’ll shrink the size of their caucus!

We will mobilize around initiative campaigns.

If they continue underfunding public schools, we’ll campaign to defund private schools!

And, yes, the words you’ve been waiting for, we will begin the process of organizing towards a potential general strike in Alberta.

To play on the words of wartime Prime Minister Mackenzie King: ”Not necessarily a general strike, but a general strike if necessary.’

To give you a sense of the mood of workers in this province, right now, I’ll turn your attention to our province’s largest private sector union – the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 401.

Yesterday, they did a survey of their 30,000 members, who work in grocery stores, warehouses and meat packing plants across the province.

90 percent of those members said they supported the teachers.

78 percent of them said they would support a general strike.

69 percent of them said they would be willing to personally support a general strike.

That is the sentiment that I am hearing from union leaders, union activists and individual workers from across the province.

Alberta workers are fed up.

They’re fed with wages that haven’t kept up with inflation.

They’re fed up with empty rhetoric from politicians who promise action on the affordability crisis but offer no real action.

They’re fed up will a system that is clearly and increasingly rigged against them.

And, now, they’re fed up with a government that is using its legislative power to silence workers and stop us from standing up for ourselves.

Because that’s what the government is really doing with its back-to-work legislation and the use of the notwithstanding clause: they’re using the heavy hand of the state to stop workers from banding together and standing up for themselves.

The teachers didn’t walk out on their students; they stood up for their students.

Workers should have the power to stand up from themselves, for each other and for the things they believe in.

This government wants to take that power – the power of collective action – away from workers.
We are going to find ways to take that power back.

That’s why this is such a unifying fight for us. And it’s why the possibility of a general strike is now firmly on the table.

We are not going to pull the pin today – but we are going to start the journey.

There are 24 unions affiliated with the Alberta Federation of Labour, representing 175,000 working Albertans.

Our Federation is part of a bigger coalition of unions, the Common Front. And, together with them, we represent more than 350,000 working Albertans.

All of those unions are signatories to what we call the Solidarity Pact, in which we all commit to support each other in the event of an attack from governments or employers.

We are going to make the Solidarity Pact mean something.

Over the coming weeks and months, every one of the Common Front unions will begin the process of talking to their members about our new priority, which is to protect our rights and our democracy by toppling this government.

Every one of those unions will begin the process of engaging its members around things like recall and initiative campaigns.

And, yes, every one of those unions will begin the process of talking to their members about the possibility of a general strike.

In the labour movement, we’ve all been inspired by an activist and author named Jane McAlevy, who sadly died of cancer last year.

When it comes to organizing – especially when it comes to organizing major actions like a general strike – she famously said ‘there are no shortcuts.’

There are no short cuts to a general strike in Alberta, but as of today, we are on the path.

Again: Not necessarily a general strike; but a general strike if necessary.”