ALBERTA - The Amalgamated Transit Union signaled their support this morning FOR the Alberta Federation of Labour’s (AFL) proposed legal challenge against the Kenney government’s plan to take control of public sector pensions. AFL President Gil McGowan announced Monday that the AFL, on behalf of several other unions, would be taking the government to court over a ministerial order, imposed under Bill 22, that gives the finance minister power to intervene and dictate how investment management services are provided.
Bill 22, an omnibus bill that was passed in November of 2019, made sweeping changes that were meant to “reduce red tape” according to the provincial government. The ministerial order effectively locked in the pension resources of tens of thousands of public sector workers into the hands of AIMco, the Alberta Investment Management Corporation. Along with the AFL, the ATU is arguing that this is unconstitutional. It strips the power of all trustees to address their fiduciary duties and allows the government to prop up their failed oil and gas initiatives in the province.
“This is an attack on the pensions of all transit professionals.” said Steve Bradshaw of Edmonton ATU Local 569. “The resources in these pensions funds are the property of the workers who placed their trust in them; by stealing this away, the Kenney government is breaking this trust.”
During a time when transit workers across the province of Alberta are already struggling financially due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this move sends another message that this government is engaged in yet another blow to the transit industry.
“As transit workers, we already have to deal with the very real everyday threats both physically and financially of the coronavirus pandemic” said Mike Mahar, President of Calgary’s ATU Local 583. “We certainly do not need another threat, from our own government no less, on the financial stability of the thousands of our members across this province.”
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