Jason Kenney’s UCP government recently wrested control of about $78.5 billion in pension assets from working Albertans, and is musing aloud about using it to prop up Alberta oil and gas companies. What’s behind this outrageous pension grab? What is AIMCo going to do with this cash? How did we get into a situation where people’s deferred wages (pensions) create these vast pools of capital that can be used against workers?

[Tyler mentions that the CPP is fully funded, it is currently funded on a “steady-state” basis (pay-as-you-go with a reserve fund). The CPP enhancement which raises the replacement rate from 25% to 33.33% (phased in by 2025) will be fully funded.]

Continue reading →

It’s been a week, hasn’t it? Team Advantage gets together to discuss a week of rapid-fire bad news. What is one to do when all the “checks and balances” our political system is supposed to have seem to get stripped away? Might there be some sort of power that could be organized to intervene? Listen in wonder as Team Advantage explains the difference between a legal strike position (which is very difficult to attain) and an illegal strike (including wildcat and sympathy strikes, which tend be highly effective, but are obviously illegal so you should never do them).

Continue reading →

In late August 2019 at the Calgary Petroleum Club, representatives from Birchcliff Energy and Tourmaline Oil presented a remarkable piece of petro-propaganda to the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers. It was instantly retweeted by Jason Kenney, stating “Enough is enough. No more apologies. We are proud of Alberta and Canada’s oil and gas.” Join Team Advantage as we watch and analyze this crypto-fascist piece of media!

The ad in question is produced by Canadians for Canada’s Future, and is located here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BlAil_zuyBw
For more about this industry front group, check out their website:
https://www.canadiansforcanadasfuture.ca

Continue reading →

Jason Kenney’s new budget is making Albertans everywhere pay more so that large, profitable corporations can get billions of dollars in tax cuts. Team Advantage assembles to survey the damage. What’s with the attacks on organized labour? What’s the point of austerity, if it’s proven not to create jobs or growth?

Continue reading →

Far from instituting a worker’s state, labour under Alberta’s NDP saw the government pursue wage containment and strike avoidance, often in the process undermining their own union supporters. Why is it that a supposed left-wing government prided itself on delivering zero-percent increases to public sector unions? How did the NDP’s failure to take on the fossil fuel industry make them look weak and hypocritical?

Nick Driedger joins Team Advantage to discuss his latest piece for online publication Organizing Work, entitled “The Ugly Reality of Unions under Social Democracy.”
Read it here: https://organizing.work/2019/10/the-ugly-reality-of-unions-under-social-democracy/

Check out Organizing Work and the WOBcast at https://organizing.work