AUPE urges 'Blue Thursdays' to protest gov't job cuts

By Trish Audette, Edmonton Journal

EDMONTON — Members of the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees are being asked to wear blue shirts every Thursday to protest the province's plans to cut nearly 800 jobs from the public sector.

"It's just a low-cost way of showing ... we feel the cuts have gone too far and too deep," said Bill Dechant, the union's executive secretary-treasurer. "We're just fed up."

Last month, the province announced 795 full-time positions would be cut from government ranks by leaving some vacancies open and laying off some workers. The cuts are supposed to be aimed at middle-management positions rather than front-line workers. Virtually every government department will be affected, with Service Alberta taking the brunt of cuts -- 410 positions will be trimmed by the end of the 2010-11 fiscal year.

Officials cannot estimate how much money will be saved by cutting the positions.

"We're still in the process of redeploying staff," said Marilyn Carlyle-Helms, a spokeswoman for the provincial government's corporate human resources department.

The government aims to shift as many people as possible into different positions to avoid layoffs. Once that process is complete-- sometime in April -- Carlyle-Helms said an analysis of savings should be complete.

So far, 98 layoffs in the departments of Education, Sustainable Resource Development and Service Alberta have been confirmed.

Union members compare the situation to layoffs and scale-backs in the 1990s, while acknowledging the proposed cuts are not nearly as dramatic.

The government is expected to begin negotiations with the AUPE this summer, as the provincial employees' union contract expires in September.

About 20,000 provincial employees, including correctional guards, social workers and fish and wildlife officers, fall under the contract.

"Everything's a warning toward negotiations," Dechant said of the blue-shirt campaign, though union members who work for local universities or other organizations are also taking part.

Employees with uniforms are asked to wear pins that say, "Some cuts never heal."

This article was published in the Edmonton Journal March 30, 2010. Read the full article on the EdmontonJournal.com website.