The dual announcements came late Monday.
Alberta Associate Chief Justice J.D. Rooke found the union in contempt of court and made his ruling public shortly after 10 p.m.
The AUPE was hit with a $100,000 fine for contempt, and that fine rises to $250,000 if the strike is not over by noon Tuesday. It jumps to $500,000 if the labour disruption doesn't end by Wednesday.
AUPE lawyer Simon Renouf asked for a week to pay the $100,000 fine; however, Rooke said there must be no delay so as to “purge” the strike as quickly as possible.
“The banks are open tomorrow (Tuesday), last I checked,” he told Renouf.
Government lawyers used media stories and videos posted on the AUPE’s website to try to prove their case of contempt. The videos showed Smith, Local 003 president Clarke McChesney, and other union leaders addressing striking workers outside the Edmonton Remand Centre.
In one of the videos from the union website, Smith tells workers that he was “directed to inform you” of the LRB’s directive to return to work. But Rooke said the message essentially had the opposite effect because he did it in a “sarcastic” tone of voice. The video then shows Smith saying, “Let’s stay here until we get what we need from this government, until they listen to us.”
Rooke said this essentially gave solidarity and support to the workers’ actions.
“They didn’t tell (the workers) what they should do, they didn’t give them the leadership they deserve, they leave it to the mob,” Rooke said. “They ridiculed the court’s goal.”
In addition to the fine, the judge ordered the union to take down any videos or messages from its website expressing support for the strike, and banned AUPE leaders from publishing anything, including on social media, that would encourage continuation of the strike. Smith, McChesney and vice-president Carrie-Lyn Rusznak were also commanded to draft a statement “in clear, unambiguous terms,” that the union requests employees to return to work.
The labour board decision late Monday expanded a weekend ruling ordering an end to a wildcat strike joined earlier Monday by Alberta sheriffs and court staff, after corrections workers walked off the job Friday.
The ruling gives the province the ability to fine any public service employees who disobey.
The wildcat strike at Alberta’s correctional facilities — costing taxpayers more than a $1 million a day — expanded to Calgary’s courthouse on Monday.
As hundreds of prison guards in Alberta stayed off the job for a fourth day, they were backed by court clerks, administrative staff, sheriffs, probation officers and social workers across the province.
Only a portion of Calgary court staff walked off the job Monday afternoon — meaning it was largely business as usual in the city’s courtrooms.
“The ones who stayed (on the job) had active court happening,” said Carrie-Lynn Rusznak of the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees.
While picket lines were peaceful, police are investigating a fight that broke out Sunday at the gym of the Calgary Remand Centre, where guards walked off the job Friday. EMS said a man was taken to hospital with serious, non-life-threatening injuries.
“We don’t know how many people were involved and we don’t know what the motive is,” said police spokesman Kevin Brookwell. “Right now, we’re just gathering information and moving ahead. It’s fairly early in the investigation.”
Police said they have talked with the victim but are still working to identify who is responsible for the attack.
Striking workers with the AUPE said earlier Monday they wouldn't back down until the province addressed their concerns, including inadequate staffing, training and safety.
The wildcat strike began Friday in Edmonton. The union says it was triggered after two workers raised their concerns about the new Edmonton Remand Centre.
The province called the strike “irresponsible” and “illegal,” and was exploring ways to get strikers back to work, including a cease-and-desist order and an application to hold the union in contempt of court.
The province also delivered court orders to individual workers, but the picketers refused to budge.
No fines had been handed out, deputy premier Thomas Lukaszuk said Monday afternoon.
Lukaszuk urged workers to “do the right thing” and return to work.
He thanked the RCMP officers, some of whom travelled from British Columbia and Saskatchewan, who were filling in for the striking guards.
“Routine has been re-established in all our correctional facilities,” he said.
RCMP Insp. John Haney said other than a few “isolated incidents,” including the altercation at the Calgary Remand Centre, jail procedures were returning to normal.
But a current Calgary Remand Centre inmate told the Herald that prisoners were complaining about being confined to cells more than usual.
“I’m being locked up, it makes me angry as hell. Our unit is short with each other, we’ve all got short fuses going on,” said the man, who asked not to be identified. “Other units are getting unlocked for 20 minutes at a time. How are 24 people supposed to shower and get their phone calls in in 20 minutes?”
At a news conference in Edmonton, one of the workers who had raised the remand centre concerns, Todd Ross, outlined employees’ issues for reporters.
Ross, also the chairman of the union local representing guards at the remand centre, said it’s the safety conditions at the jail that are unacceptable.
He said 800 inmates were moved into the new jail over a two-day period from other remand centres, which was too many, too fast. Glass in the facility is breakable, there aren’t enough video monitoring cameras and not enough officers are issued with pepper spray.
“This is all about occupational health and safety concerns,” said Ross, who has been a corrections officer for 28 years.
“It is a life and death situation. We need to get some meaningful talks going with this government.”
He and another colleague were subsequently reprimanded and suspended with pay, spurring their Edmonton colleagues to walk off the job Friday.
Correctional workers at all 10 correctional facilities in Alberta — Edmonton, Calgary, Red Deer, Medicine Hat, Lethbridge and Peace River — soon followed, along with sheriffs, probation officers, court clerks, administrative staff and social workers.
In Calgary, police officers stepped in to conduct screenings at the entrance, security in courtrooms and prisoner transports.
Lawyers at court Monday were largely supportive of the walkout.
“In my view, there’s not enough disruption,” defence lawyer Andre Ouellette told reporters.
The government has been keen to spend money on new buildings, but when it comes to dealing with employees, they have failed, Ouellette said.
But the provincial government contends that workplace health and safety were not at the core of the labour dispute.
Lukaszuk said the Edmonton Remand Centre was inspected multiple times and received a clean bill of health. He added the AUPE had signed off on all hazard assessments, an assertion the AUPE contested.
“Right now, we’re in the middle of contract negotiations with that particular union,” Lukaszuk said.
Union president Guy Smith said the deputy premier’s claims about the AUPE signing off on hazardous assessments is “completely untrue.” He also denied that the strike had anything to do with current collective bargaining negotiations.
Original Article
Source: calgaryherald.com
Author: Clara Ho
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