Canada 360 | The anger of Alberta universities

Anger is brewing in Alberta universities. In early January, the 82 professors at Concordia University in Edmonton braved the freezing cold to go on strike for two weeks. The mobilization of a small university like Concordia to improve the working conditions of its employees may seem trivial, especially from a Quebec perspective, where this kind of pressure tactic is legion. However, for Alberta, this is a historic first! Never had a post-secondary institution gone on strike before. Until recently, the right to strike for colleges and universities in the province or for public sector employees was not recognized.

Yet the labor movement has a rich history on the Prairies. In the aftermath of the First World War, returning soldiers struggled to find employment, inflation was at its peak and salaries were no longer sufficient to pay for food and accommodation, the prices of which exploded. In this context, trade unions abound. In 1919, Winnipeg was paralyzed by the biggest strike in the country’s history. More than 30,000 workers take to the streets, demanding a change in their conditions and the right to collective bargaining. The echoes are felt in neighboring provinces. In Edmonton and Calgary, thousands of workers are walking out in solidarity with their Manitoba peers.

In 1932, in the midst of the economic crisis, the Hunger March brought together 12,000 exasperated workers, farmers and unemployed in Edmonton before being suppressed by the police at the request of the provincial authorities. If the battles waged by the unions and labor movements have led to an improvement in working conditions, repression has never been far away.

The right to strike

The years in power of Peter Lougheed, leader of the Progressive Conservative Party and premier of Alberta from 1971 to 1985, were marked by rollbacks in workers’ rights. Indeed, in 1977, a law took away the right of public sector employees to strike, a law which was later extended to the health sector, depriving generations of employees of a fundamental lever.

It took a Supreme Court judgment in 2015, affirming the constitutional nature of the strike, to initiate changes.

The Alberta government had to go back to the drawing board to rewrite its labor laws so that they no longer infringe the right to association protected by the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

The anti-worker laws of the Lougheed era have left their mark. Union culture has withered away. And the strike is not a natural reflex. But the story of Concordia University, which, thanks to the solidarity of the student community, managed to stand up to an intransigent university administration and government is inspiring.

Underfunded universities

Indeed, in recent years, it is not only the conditions of workers within universities that have been abused, it is the very spirit of the institution. Eager to clean up public finances in a slowing economy, Jason Kenney’s United Conservatives have made major cuts to the public service and post-secondary education. By way of illustration, at the end of this government’s mandate in 2023, 40% of provincial funding for the University of Alberta, the province’s largest university, will have been cut. The other universities are no exception. This underfunding cannot be done without significant collateral damage and without undermining the very independence of post-secondary institutions, which must increasingly form alliances with the private sector in order to survive.

To respond to the cuts, the universities are undertaking major restructuring, leading to the loss of positions, the precariousness of careers and the reduction of services to the student community, which is particularly hard hit these days.

Like Ontario and Manitoba, Alberta is considering a new performance-based university funding model, with indicators such as student employability, salary and grant revenue. In this context, the large faculties (engineering, health) could enrich themselves to the detriment of the smaller ones (humanities and social sciences, fine arts) and the universities risk becoming in the pay of industry. However, this is not how we prepare for the future. The university cannot be reduced to a trade school. It is a place where we must cultivate critical thinking and train resilient citizens, capable of adapting to a world in upheaval. It is this university independent of the laws of the market that the government is attacking.

Concordia University in Edmonton opened a breach. She showed that it is possible to conquer the right to resist. Other establishments could imitate it in the coming weeks. Indeed, negotiations between management and employees are currently at an impasse at Lethbridge University and Mount Royal University. The University of Alberta student newspaper, The Gateway, recently published an editorial extolling the merits of the strike, pointing out that despite its disruptive effects, it remains a powerful tool for maintaining the quality of post-secondary institutions. As inflation hits levels not seen in decades, as students see their future clouded by the pandemic and soaring tuition fees, as employees do more with less due to lack of resources, Alberta has good reasons to reconnect with its protesting past.