Unions gather for May Day on campus

On May 1, various unions gathered to commemorate May Day, which recognizes the historic struggles of workers. The Non-Academic Staff Association (NASA) organized a march from the Timms Centre to Main Quad.

Approximately 100 people attended the event, including members of the Association of Academic Staff at the University of Alberta (AASUA). Other organizations in attendance included the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), Friends of Medicare, the Edmonton and District Labour Council, and the Alberta Federation of Labour (AFL).

“Think of your union when you get an annual pay increase, or get a massage funded by your employer-paid insurance,” Zainish Hashmi said. “Don’t let your employer take credit for the benefits we demanded of them.”

Rick Brick spoke on behalf of AASUA, highlighting the concept of solidarity. 

“As [the] academic component, we count on our friends at NASA, we count on our friends in [United Nurses of Alberta] (UNA), and in the [AFL], and everybody else I see here,” Brick said. 

“We belong to the house of labour, and we have strength in that,” he said. “It’s what gives us strength.”

Gil McGowan, president of the AFL and U of A alum, also spoke at the event.

He said there’s been attacks on ordinary voting Albertans, public services like health care, vulnerable groups, and basic rights like the right to strike.

“In times like these, it is easy to give into despair, but I heard from one of our activists just the other day that the antidote to despair is action,” he said.

McGowan highlighted the province-wide protest planned for May 29. 

“When labour is attacked, everything is attacked,” Benders says

President of NASA, Quinn Benders, said that a healthy working class means a healthy democracy, and vice versa. 

“The most organized people in most societies tend to be working-class people,” he said. “When the labour movement is strong, our democracy tends to be very strong. But when our labour movement is attacked, it’s a parallel problem, our democracy erodes.”

Benders said that weekends, benefits, rights, the eight-hour work day all comes from the labour movement.

“We’ve watched austerity as it’s gutted our public services, things like education, health care, the social services we depend on,” he said. “And, of course, the university that we work at and we love.”

Benders said the Government of Alberta has imposed bargaining mandates on public bodies and taken away the right to strike. He said this is part of eroding collective action.

“When they do that, they bypass the courts so we have no remedies,” he said. “The only remedy we have is organized labour, and organized civil society.”

“Let’s not just fight for better conditions here on our campus. We should be fighting for better conditions in our communities, with our families, with our government, and the courts. Because when labour is attacked, everything is attacked.”