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and runs website: http://socialistaction.ca How can they get away with it? Ontario taxpay­ ers have given millions to cereal-maker Kellogg Co., which amassed $2 billion in operating profits last year. In 2007, the Liberal government gave the breakfast food giant $2.4 million to buy processing and packaging equipment for its London, Ontario, plant, two hours west of Toronto. A year later, the (3) No trade union shall engage in or continue to engage in any conduct that constitutes a strike threat.

(4) No person shall counsel a person to contra­ vene subsection (1) or (2) or impede or prevent.”

Point No. 2 makes it illegal to canvass the opinion of “employees to determine whether they wish to strike,” or to freely express a view that calls for or supports strike action.

The fourth point appears to extend beyond public sector employees and union leaders to the general public, prohibiting counseling union members to strike or threaten a strike. Activists not directly involved with an Alberta union, like yours truly, could be prosecuted for suggesting that a strike is the only recourse to protect public services, pensions, benefits, or to draw attention to unsafe working conditions that put the health of workers and the general public at risk.

The legislation has been called draconian and undemocratic in its sledgehammer approach to denying freedom of expression to the public. Even the Calgary Herald, an ally of the ruling P.C. party wrote, “The passing of Bills 45 and 46 on Wednes­ day night marks a dark chapter in Alberta History.” Even the more right-wing Wild Rose Party voted against this legislation.

Alberta NDP leader Brian Mason called the bills “legislation that would make Margaret Thatcher blush.” He added, “I am prepared to resist this bill in order to defend the rights of all Albertans to freedom of speech and freedom of association.” How far he’d go to resist it is not clear.

The Alberta Union of Provincial Employees vows to fight the bills in court. Guy Smith, president of the union, says AUPE is filing another complaint with the Alberta Labour Relations Board, as well as a complaint with the United Nations Interna­ tional Labour Organization. He told the Canadian Press that the conditions placed on negotiations is akin to the government ’s bringing “a gun on the table,” and he won’t negotiate on that basis.

The response by organized labour to this brazen attack has been tepid. Litigation can take up to a leville, Ont., two hours east of Toronto. And un­ til Kellogg announced on Dec. 10 that it is clos­ ing its 90-year-old plant in London, and thus killing 610 jobs by the end of 2014, Queen’s The Canadian Press Park was set to give Kellogg another grant for $4.5 million.

In other words, the Ontario government has been helping Kellogg to build a new, non-union manufacturing plant in Belleville so that the company could shutter an older, unionized op­ eration in London, Ont. The corporate move is part of an overall restructuring, which by 2018 will include closing a plant in Australia and ex­ panding a facility in low-wage Thailand. We’ve seen this film before. In 2008, the On­ tario and federal governments helped bail out General Motors. But when GM became prof­ itable again, the company closed one of its two Oshawa assembly lines, and shifted some production from Ingersoll, Ont., to Tennessee. How’s that for gratitude?

In recent years, Massey-Ferguson in Toronto, and the U.S. Steel Corp. in Hamilton behaved similarly.

So, to return to the question posed at the out­ set, how is this possible? It is both possible and inevitable because the politicians and govern­ ments bestowing the public largesse on those greedy, anti-social firms are the servants of the super-rich.

Why don’t leaders of the unions and the la­ bour-based New Democratic Party challenge the discredited practice of foolishly feeding the corporate elite, and instead advance the democratic idea of public ownership under workers’ and community control? Surely so­ ciety is capable of planning the production of useful things without having to bribe private profi­ teers who operate for a while, then flee, with stuffed pockets, to greener pastures.

To put the democratic option on the table will take direct mass action from below—like Kellogg’s workers in London occupying the plant they made profitable with their sweat and toil—before its doors are locked forever. n decade to complete. Meanwhile, the impact on the working class in Alberta and beyond will be stag­ gering.

The Alberta Federation of Labour launched a tepid campaign calling Premier Redford a bully. “Alison Redford has poisoned labour relations in Alberta’s public sector, perhaps for years,” Alberta Federation of Labour President Gil McGowan said at the press conference. “If she thinks that threats, bullying and intimidation will stop workers from standing up for themselves and against her sense­ less agenda of cuts and rollbacks in the midst of prosperity, she has another thing coming.”

The president of the National Union of Public and General Employees (NUPGE), James Clancy, said, “Bill 45, the Public Sector Services Continuation Act, places further restrictions on over 100,000 unionized workers in Alberta who already are de­ nied their right to strike. It broadens the definition of a strike to include ‘any slowdown or any activ­ ity that has the effect of restricting or disrupting production or services.’” No plan of action to defeat these bills has been announced.

The AUPE has been playing footsie with the par­ ties of big business. Recently, observers have noted that the union leadership support has tilted to­ wards the more right-wing Wild Rose Party. Its op­ position to Bills 45 and 46 indicates that this may be the case.

The union leadership may think that a Wild Rose government led by Opposition Leader Danielle Smith could hardly be worse than the one now led by Progressive Conservative Premier Alison Red­ ford, but that is foolish. The notion that “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” may put pressure on the P.C’s in the short term, but it will spell disaster for the labour movement in Alberta.

The AUPE should urge a vote for the provincial New Democrats, and fight for a Workers’ Agenda within the labour-based party.

The Alberta Federation of Labour should orga­ nize mass strike action, and seek support from or­ ganized labour across the country.

The left should organize a cross-union movement of labour militants to challenge the bureaucratic union leadership and press for actions needed to defeat anti-union laws. n