Alberta unions promise ‘big and bold’ response — but can they deliver?

Alberta’s labour movement is flirting with a tactic that its leaders say would be “big and bold and unprecedented,” but they’re still not quite ready to flip the switch.

Last week, labour leaders promised an “unprecedented response” to the provincial government’s decision to use the Charter’s notwithstanding clause to force striking teachers back to work.

Days later, supporters and media congregated at Ironworkers Hall in Edmonton to hear more about what the Alberta Federation of Labour had up its sleeve. 

But if one was expecting concrete plans for a provincewide strike, as Gil McGowan, president of the AFL, had intimated was under consideration, the press conference that followed laid out a longer road ahead.

“General strike?” read one of multiple noncommittal signs on stage.

McGowan has said the labour movement needed more time to speak with union leaders and non-unionized workers about the possibility of enacting a general strike, which would see people across various fields refusing to work. 

There’s still much to work through nearly a week later.

“If we’re going to do it, it needs to be so big and so many people involved, that it would be difficult for the government to arrest and fine everyone,” McGowan told CBC Radio’s Alberta at Noon host Kathleen Petty on Tuesday.

“In order to protect the people that are involved, it has to be big and bold and unprecedented —and that’s exactly what we’re working towards organizing.”

Jason Foster, a professor of human resources and labour relations at Athabasca University, said this moment is a significant one for the Alberta labour movement.

“Alberta does have an active and militant labour history … but it’s been much quieter in the last 20 to 30 years,” he said.

“And that’s why, I think, that makes the teachers’ strike and all the fallout that’s been happening in the days since quite significant.” 

But as history shows, maintaining early momentum will be no cakewalk, and Alberta’s labour landscape poses its own challenges.

Alberta has long had the lowest percentage of workers in unions in the country. 

In 2024, a little more than 23 per cent of Albertans aged 15 years and older were covered by a collective bargaining agreement.

That placed Alberta last across Canada, trailing union-strong provinces like Newfoundland and Labrador and Quebec, where rates approach 40 per cent.

The national average is about 30 per cent.

Compared to other provinces, Alberta’s labour movement has been smaller and less unified. That’s minimized some of its capacity to be able to mobilize in larger ways, Foster said. 

Still, Foster noted that nearly one in four workers in the province belongs to a union. 

“Despite the relatively small size, it’s still a large enough number of people that you could have a profound economic and political impact on the province,” he said.

McGowan has said the AFL, an umbrella group consisting of 24 unions in the public and private sector representing 175,000 workers, has joined with other unions under the Common Front coalition, which he claims represents nearly 400,000 workers.

Speaking on Alberta at Noon, McGowan said the AFL is “building new muscles” and said that unions are democratic organizations.

“We have to go back to our boards; we have to go back to our membership. I’m actually looking forward to that process, and it’s underway already,” he said.

Why Alberta won’t immediately see a general strike

Some feel as though the rhetoric may have already gone too far, including Joseph Marchand, a professor of economics at the University of Alberta, who noted the province has recently signed several major wage contracts.

“For the sake of our shared democracy and for the future of our province, I’m glad I didn’t hear any of that today [from McGowan],” Marchand said on Alberta at Noon. “I really think that all of this needs to be toned down quite a bit. There is no war going on here.”

Moving forward, Foster said momentum will be everything. 

“What we’ve learned from history is that you can have these moments of galvanizing forces, but is there a momentum there?” he said.

“Can you maintain that over weeks and over months? And that’s the big question mark right now.”