An Alberta general strike raises many questions. Key among them are if — and when

For the first time in more than 100 years  Albertans are talking about a general strike, inflamed by the provincial government’s use of the notwithstanding clause to force striking teachers back to work. 

The Alberta Federation of Labour (AFL) includes 24 unions, representing 175,000 workers. Its president, Gil McGowan, also leads a larger collective called Common Front, which has agreed to treat an attack on some workers’ rights as an attack on all workers’ rights.

McGowan has said unions will encourage workers — who are incensed by the provincial government’s suspension of bargaining rights — to volunteer for recall campaigns and prepare for a possible general strike.

But what are the legalities around a general strike? What moves could the Alberta government take to stop it? And if it does go ahead, when should it happen?

A general strike is when workers across multiple sectors refuse to work. The general strike being proposed by the AFL would not be legal because it could not fulfil the requirements outlined by the Alberta Labour Relations Board. 

The board conditions for a legal strike or lockout are:  

The issue of whether a general strike is legal is “an odd question,” according to James Muir, associate professor of history and law at the University of Alberta. 

The main differences between legal and illegal strikes are protections granted to workers and the risk of overt punishment, he said.

Muir said general strikes can be a unifying tool, bringing together workers from different industries. 

“These opportunities for large-scale protest moments, whether it’s a day or six weeks, is an opportunity to really build that community, and that, in itself, can have a really significant impact on getting the political change that those groups of people want,” he said 

In a legal strike, employees are not entitled to pay but they are still considered employees and cannot be terminated because they are on strike, according to the labour board.

An illegal strike is more precarious for workers, putting them at risk of fines or losing their jobs.

If the strike is unlawful, the board will order that it stop and may make other remedial orders. These would be filed with the clerk of the court and are then enforceable as court judgments. Knowingly violating a court order is considered contempt of court, with judicial discretion for penalties ranging from fines to imprisonment. 

These types of ramifications during an illegal strike were felt by Alberta’s nurses in 1988.

Despite a labour board ruling that declared even the act of holding a vote on strike action would be illegal, the union’s membership voted in favour of going on strike. More than 14,000 nurses walked off the job at hospitals across the province.

Their union, the United Nurses of Alberta, was charged with criminal contempt and 75 nurses received charges of civil contempt, which came with the threat of fines and jail time. When the strike ended after 19 days, the union ended up paying almost $427,000 in fines.

An additional wrinkle is the growing encroachment of governments wielding their own legislative powers, according to employment lawyer Omar Abougoush.

He points to the use of the notwithstanding clause, which was invoked by the Alberta government to force 51,000 striking teachers back to work. 

“It’s all legislation now … to take money from you, penalize you, hold you in contempt,” Abougoush said. 

Bill 2, or the Back to School Act, was passed on Oct. 28. It sets financial penalties of $500 per day for individuals who defy the back-to-work order and up to $500,000 for the union per day, if it doesn’t comply with the legislation. The bill also suspends bargaining at local tables until 2028.

Commencing a general strike is a calculated gamble, risking whether institutions like the government and police have the means to enforce laws that crack down on illegal strikes. Abougoush called it “possible, but it’s not survivable.”

In the event of a general strike, the government would act immediately, he said.

“They would immediately impose that injunction, impose fines, freeze union assets and money, force back-to-work legislation.” 

The Winnipeg General Strike that started May 15, 1919, is the most famous one in Canadian history. 

“The workers’ living standards were challenged, particularly by high inflation and so on, during the war, and they felt that they didn’t really have any option,” James Naylor, history professor at Brandon University in Manitoba, told CBC’s Edmonton AM. 

A defining day of the job action came near the end of the six-week strike. Now known as Bloody Saturday, it ended with two dead, dozens hurt and the city under military rule. 

Was it effective? 

On first glance, the Winnipeg General Strike could be viewed as a defeat given that the demands made by building and metal trades workers were not met.   

However, the strike resulted in a changing of guard in both the municipal and provincial governments to candidates who aligned themselves to labour causes. 

Two years after the strike, Canada mandated its first minimum wage.

The reverberations from the general strike also included sympathy strikes in Edmonton, Calgary and Lethbridge. 

In Edmonton and Calgary, the sympathy strikes started on May 26, 1919, involving about 3,500  workers who stayed off the job for all or part of the general strike, according to research from Alvin Finkel, president of the Alberta Labour History Institute.

The Edmonton contingent of 2,000 strikers represented over half of the city’s unionized labour force. 

Muir called the 1919 walkout “the largest general strike in Alberta’s history — and it had a serious impact.”  

In Alberta, some of the sentiment attached to the sympathy strikes trickled down to the ballot box in the subsequent provincial election. 

The Liberal party, which had held power from 1905, was toppled in 1921 by the United Farmers of Alberta (UFA), which remained in government until 1935. 

Muir said political support of striking workers boosted votes for candidates from the UFA and the Dominion Labor Party, which won four seats. 

Despite the risks of a general strike, the AFL sees potential in the action to unite the province’s workers amid growing outrage over multiple labour tensions levelled at the provincial government. 

“We saw with the teachers that this is a government that is willing to impose — to use — the heavy hand of government to strip workers of the ability to come together and exercise their collective power,” said McGowan, who hopes non-union workers will become allies. 

“They can’t arrest 250,000 workers. They can’t arrest 350,000 workers. They can’t arrest 450,000 workers,” he said.

“There isn’t room in our jails. There aren’t resources within our legal system to process arrests and fines. We have to build to the point where it’s so big that we protect ourselves by standing with each other — and that takes time.”

Even the threat of a general strike can be powerful. 

A recent example of that came in 2022, when Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s government tried to ban an education workers’ strike. It passed a bill, that included use of the notwithstanding clause, to prevent strike action and impose a contract.

In response, members of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) walked off the job, forcing the closure of hundreds of schools. Ontario then repealed the law entirely.

Abougoush said he doesn’t think general strikes are effective because governments have power to force people back to work or impose fines. 

Even with legal strikes, “the government can override that strike with the notwithstanding clause,” he said. 

However the political ramifications of a government using the clause could show up in future elections if citizens choose “to elect a government that promises not to use it,” Abougoush said. 

McGowan said there is no intention of rushing into a general strike. He said it’s important that the AFL ensure its unions are on board — and that the unions have that conversation with their members. 

Muir said garnering support is “perhaps not as difficult as it seems.” 

He said a localized approach is likely, with individual unions determining whether they can match the AFL’s call to action and hosting events, as opposed to concurrent large-scale protests. 

But Muir said he believes that if a general strike is going to happen, it needs to be soon. Even waiting until January could diffuse the raw emotions currently felt among Albertans, he said.

“There are lots of other groups in the province who are angered by other actions of the provincial government,” Muir said. 

“This is a moment where it could happen.”