Who are Common Front?

Earlier this month, I attended an information meeting for a movement called Common Front.

Initiated by the Alberta Federation of Labour, the group is trying to bring unions together in Alberta in an effort to build class solidarity.

The group kicked off their provincial tour in Lethbridge on 6 February.

Presenting to the group of about 50 people were Gil McGowan, president of the AFL, and Cori Longo, AFL’s secretary–treasurer.

According to the presenters, over 250,000 workers in Alberta are either at the bargaining table or on picket lines, including 80% of the public sector. The way they see it, the opportunity for coordinated action to build real worker power in the province has never been greater.

They spoke about the hostility the UCP government has show to workers through such things as secret mandates forced on public sector employers through the Provincial Bargaining and Compensation Office or using the Dispute Inquiry Board to disrupt striking workers.

As well, they discussed the various ways they have legislated animosity towards unions and workers over the last 6 years, such as no minimum wage increases, reduced overtime pay, barriers to unionizing, complicating collective bargaining, striking restrictions, and overall reduced bargaining power.

McGowan and Longo also talked about the overall social and political climate, how there is a general anti-union sentiment in the broader Alberta society, outside of just the UCP and how this has undermined workers solidarity over time.

With reduced support for unions in Alberta, Alberta has seen the worst performance in real wage growth, which the presenters pointed out has eroded the so-called Alberta Advantage. They claimed that private sector wages are 5% lower now than they were in 2019 and public sector wages have dropped by twice as much.

Related to wages, McGowan and Longo discussed how Alberta workers no longer have the highest wages in the country, falling behind British Columbia and Québec. They highlighted that one main cause for this is that legal and political frameworks in those two provinces increase the bargaining power that workers have, which means they can negotiate better wages than Alberta workers can.

The presenters proposed that the situation exists for workers to come together in solidarity to improve their material conditions. They said that workers have to move away from “going cap in hand to government and parties”, and instead make government and parties come to workers, forcing them to “earn our votes”.

Common Front is proposing a “worker agenda” focused on 6 pillars:

• Wages
• Affordability
• Jobs
• Public services
• Health & safety
• Democracy

Here are some examples of proposals that could be part of the worker agenda under each pillar.

During the presentation, McGowan and Longo conducted a brief interactive survey to gauge attendees’ feelings about the current economic climate, especially as it relates to the workplace.

For example, when asked whether their members have fallen behind inflation with a reduced standard of living, 94% of respondents agreed.

90% thought workers will need to either definitely or probably strike to catch up financially. That being said, 2 in 3 respondents were worried that the provincial government would interfere in strikes, with another 20% not quite sure what the government might do.

A whopping 98% of participants said they think they can get bigger wins if they cooperate with other unions, and 96% indicated that their own union would benefit either somewhat or greatly if they cooperated with other unions.

Those in attendance at Lethbridge’s event represented the following 9 public sector and private sector unions:

• Alberta Union of Provincial Employees (AUPE)
• Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE)
• Health Sciences Association of Alberta (HSAA)
• Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC)
• University of Lethbridge Faculty Association (ULFA)
• United Nurses of Alberta (UNA)
• Industrial Workers of the World (IWW)
• United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW)
• Unifor

The group followed up the Lethbridge kick-off event with an event in Calgary the next week and one in Edmonton this past week. They’ll be in Fort McMurray next week, followed by events in Grande Prairie, Red Deer, and Hinton in March.