Alberta Is Targeting Health-Care Workers’ Right to Strike, Says AFL

When Jason Kenney’s United Conservative Party government passed the Critical Infrastructure Defence Act in 2020, critics warned it would lead to more criminalization of protests in Alberta.

Now the Alberta Federation of Labour says that’s happening as the government has introduced amendments that could bar health-care workers from picketing hospitals and other health centres.

The Kenney law was passed in response to rallies and actions by environmentalist and Indigenous protesters, some blockading rail lines, commuter train routes and roadways. The blockades were in response to the Coastal GasLink pipeline in northern British Columbia, which was opposed by Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs.

The original act set out penalties, including fines and jail terms, for anyone who entered, damaged or interfered with the operation of critical infrastructure.

In 2021 the act was expanded with a temporary regulation to include hospitals and other health facilities.

Another quick reaction, this time in response to COVID-19 anti-vaccination protests. The new rules focused on making sure protesters weren’t harassing health professionals or stopping people from getting medical assistance.

But on Nov. 5 the UCP government quietly introduced amendments to the act in an omnibus bill, Bill 31, the Justice Statutes Amendments Act, that would add “hospitals, continuing care homes, mental health facilities and other facilities to the Critical Infrastructure Defence Act.”

AFL president Gil McGowan said it’s significant the changes came as health-care workers are bargaining with the government. The AFL is an umbrella organization with 26 affiliated unions with 170,000 members.

“When Jason Kenney passed this law four years ago, we voiced concerns that it was far reaching, unconstitutional and punitive,” McGowan was quoted in the release. “We warned that the UCP government was willing to use all tools to stop or discourage all collective action that goes against the UCP agenda, including potential labour or worker action.”

McGowan told The Tyee the bill appears to target health-care workers’ right to strike and protest.

“When the bill was introduced back in 2020, it was about quashing dissent from environmentalists, from Indigenous groups,” McGowan said, speaking to The Tyee.

“Now health-care workers are in the crosshairs,” he said.

“That’s significant, because at this moment there are more than 250,000 Alberta workers at the bargaining table. A large proportion of those are people who work in the health-care system.”

In late October, United Nurses of Alberta members voted to reject a mediator's proposed settlement that had been backed by the union.

That means they’ll be heading back for more bargaining and makes a strike more likely.

“We think that the UCP has introduced this legislation to make it harder for them to exercise that right,” McGowan said. “It’s clear to us that they want to stop nurses and other health-care workers from setting up effective picket lines, because we’ve received legal interpretations of Bill 31.”

The interpretations suggest that if the bill is passed, picketers could be arrested, McGowan said.

But that could open the door to a legal challenge arguing the legislation violates Canadians’ constitutional right to protest, protected in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Alberta already has regulations that govern picket lines. “Picketing must be peaceful and carried out without trespassing or other unlawful acts.” The picketers can try to persuade people not to cross the line, but can’t block them.

And if employers think any of the rules are being broken, they can appeal to the Alberta Labour Relations Board.

But the new legislation would be more restrictive, McGowan said, and deny heath-care workers their Charter rights.

“Strikes are supposed to be disruptive, frankly, and they are supposed to provide a platform for us to be able to express our demands,” he said. He argued the bill would rob health-care workers of that platform.

“Obviously that will help the UCP advance their agenda, but they will do that by stripping other Albertans of their constitutional rights. Especially the right to assemble and the right to free speech,” he said.

The Alberta Union of Provincial Employees challenged the original law, arguing it infringed on the right to strike. The B.C. Court of Appeal rejected the challenge because no union members had been hurt by the law.

McGowan said workers wouldn’t be deterred from exercising their rights.

“While they find this piece of legislation distasteful, they’re not going to be bullied or intimidated by it, to stop standing up for themselves,” he said.

McGowan said 2025 is shaping up to be a year of protest.

The office of Alberta Justice Minister Mickey Amery did not reply to questions on Bill 31 by publication time.