Since 2003, this is also an opportunity for affiliates to recognize the contributions of their best activists and we urge you to consider nominating someone for this award by filling out the form below or emailing the office by clicking HERE.

Background

In late 2000, the EDLC received word that one of its strong former activists was seriously ill and might possibly die in the near future. In discussing how the EDLC might recognise this person, we were advised that she herself had indicated to people visiting her in the hospital that she would appreciate some recognition for having laid the groundwork for the annual Labour Day BBQ for the Unemployed. The Executive of the day decided to create an award to recognise such people and their contributions to the labour scene in Edmonton. It was dubbed the “EDLC Wall of Fame” Award.

Criteria

• The nominee must have been a delegate to, and activist of the EDLC as well as his/her Local.
• The nominee must have been nominated by an affiliate of the EDLC or its Executive Council.
• The nominee will have distinguished themselves in one or more of the following areas: length of service, building the labour community in Edmonton and area, innovating projects, events or activities in Edmonton and area that strengthen the labour movement or raise its profile.

Process

The Executive of the EDLC will solicit nominations for the award in the fall of each year, destablishing a deadline of Friday March 6th, 2026. A sub-committee of the Executive, chosen once nominations have closed, will then review the nominations and obtain any clarification they so determine from the nominators or others as they see fit. The evaluation Committee will establish its own procedures for reviewing nominations. The evaluation committee will use due diligence to provide the nominators as fair a chance as is reasonable to state the case for their candidate. The evaluation committee will bring their recommendation for the award to the March Executive meeting, at which the Executive will make the final selection. The award(s) may be given posthumously and ties are acceptable. The award(s) will be made at the Annual General meeting of the EDLC.

The post EDLC Wall of Fame Nominations 2026 appeared first on Edmonton District Labour Council.

We are asking all delegates and members of the public who want to build our region while offering respectful and thoughtful government to volunteer and vote for the following candidates where they live. Community involvement starts at home and we know so many of you work tirelessly to make our communities the best that we can.

Strathcona County

Mayor                                              Rod Frank

Ward 2                                            Mike Derbyshire

Ward 4                                            Bill Tonita

Ward 7                                            Glen Lawrence

Ward 8                                            Katie Berghofer

St. Albert

Mayor                                              Wes Brodhead

Councillor                                      Amanda Patrick

Councillor                                      Kevin Malinowski

Councillor                                      Neil Korotash

Councillor                                      Skye Vermeulen

Beaumont

Mayor                                              Catherine McCook

Councillor                                      Kathryn Hotte

Councillor                                      Philip Penrod

Councillor                                      Anthony Kohlsmith

Leduc

Mayor                                              Lars Hansen

Councillor                                      Tammy Haayema

Councillor                                      Kristine Mrygold

Councillor                                      Sahwn Raymond

Councillor                                      Jill Spinks

Councillor                                      Laura Tillack

The post Regional Candidate Endorsements appeared first on Edmonton District Labour Council.

Due to popular demand we have developed a way you can donate right here on the website. Unfortunately at this time we cannot accept etransfer. Please use the form below if you are able to contribute.

Our “Picket Pantry” to support striking workers is open to all, no questions asked. We will be accepting donations at all of our events and in the office by appointment (e-mail: office@edlc.ca).

Thank you for helping out in any way you can. Solidarity is the strength we need to win this fight, and we will be needing all of it!

Any remaining items will be donated to the Edmonton Food Bank.

Items being requested are:

• Beans without pork
• Canned fish or meat
• Peanut butter (500g)
• Healthy school snacks
• Rice
• Canned fruit or vegetables
• Pasta & pasta sauce
• Soup
• Hot & cold cereal
• Monetary donations are gratefully accepted

The post EDLC Picket Pantry appeared first on Edmonton District Labour Council.

After two years of conversations, much deliberation and due process the Edmonton & District Labour Council passed our endorsements for the upcoming municipal election.

We worked together with community organizations, activists and citizens that informed the Working Families Edmonton campaign. Thanks to this work we were able to identify the issues working people need to see addressed in the upcoming municipal election. After countless hours of interviews and sorting through candidate survey results we are proud to announce our endorsed candidates. Our survey asked questions about the issues affecting working people and those with responses matching closest to our position on the identified issues were endorsed. At our General Membership Meeting on September 15th the EDLC delegates endorsed the following candidates for City Council:

Mayor – Andrew Knack

AND the folloring Edmonton Public School Board candidates:

We are proud to endorse candidates with a proven track record of working to improve the lives of working people in Edmonton & area. We hope you are too, and we encourage you to share, volunteer, and donate until it hurts to ensure that working people FINALLY get some say at City Hall. We encourage you to check out our EVENT PAGE for opportunities to support these candidates reach out to endorsed candidates directly or get in touch with us for more information on how to get involved.

The post EDLC Edmonton Municipal Election Endorsements appeared first on Edmonton District Labour Council.

The most shocking revelation we saw was that the Provincial Government has chosen to not pay taxes on their properties in the City since 2019, something working people are just not allowed to do. Not only that, we heard this week that even though they have no intention to pay their bills they are also passing legislation to stop any other order of Government from paying for them. This simply means that the working people of Edmonton are the only ones left to pick up their bill!

Yesterday, in a press release, we learned that in order to keep up with rising costs the City of Edmonton is anticipating an 8.7 property tax increase. This increase doesn’t even allow the city to replace deteriorating infrastructure or our aging capital assets let alone pursue any projects badly needed in our city. It simply just covers the rising cost of everything. If the Government of Alberta paid their bill to the city that would account for 7.2% of the property tax increase leaving working families with 1.5% to bear.

The bill brings to light the following:

• $60 million in unpaid property tax grant funding the government is delinquent on paying
• $14 million in ongoing, yearly property tax grant funding
• $5 million in ongoing, yearly services they REQUIRE the city to do but won’t pay for
• $8 million in ongoing, yearly revenue from fines which they decided to claim instead of leaving it in our city
• $28 million in ongoing, yearly, and projected to increase MEDICAL ONLY calls that Edmonton Fire Rescue Services had to respond to which should be covered by Ambulance funding which is their responsibility
• $11.3 million in ongoing, yearly, and projected to increase opioid / shingela response funding and mental health services that the city has had to provide which is squarely Provincial jurisdiction and needs to be funded through health care
• $17 million ongoing, yearly, and projected to increase due to population growth, funding that would be what Edmonton would get if we had the same per capita funding as Calgary

Working Families Edmonton has put together a petition please take a moment to sign it and share it widely as we all call on the Provincial Government to pay their bills! Enough is enough, they need to pay their bill now and stop downloading THEIR COSTS onto Edmonton’s working families!

The post The UCP Needs to Pay their Bills! appeared first on Edmonton District Labour Council.

Although Jim Shewchuk worked in dangerous conditions on the railway, he devoted his life in Alberta fighting for worker’s rights. In 1984, the Edmonton and District Labour Council and United Way of Alberta Capital Region created this award in his name to recognize an Edmonton & District trade unionist for their community, union, and charitable involvement. 

Please consider nominating someone by the April 15 DEADLINE. Your nominee must show a commitment to the union, and the community at large.

Nominee Criteria: 

• Made a substantial contribution as a volunteer in the Alberta Capital Region in the human services field

• Instrumental in the creation and/or provision of services/programs to better the Alberta Capital Region community needs

• Has served as a volunteer for an extended period of years (not necessarily in one organization).

The post 2024 Jim Shewchuk Award Nomination Form *APRIL 15 DEADLINE* appeared first on Edmonton District Labour Council.

When we took part in the public consultations we said the exact same thing. While the wording of the questions in the consultation showed the intent of their proposed changes, the implications of them can go far beyond what was intended and be detrimental to not only our society, but our democracy. The penalty for violating a bylaw is a fine, a fine that those with money can either choose to pay or pay expensive legal fees to take it to court. For those without money it just adds an additional burden on their road to once again becoming a contributing member of our communities.

The labour movement, led by unions, has always been a defender of our fundamental democratic rights. Included in those is our freedom to assemble, our right of association and our freedom of expression. As a matter of principle, we have never paid fees associated with exercising these rights and we will never pay fees or fines that they impose moving forward. We believe that our democracy is not a pay to play system and any attempt to make it so is fundamentally unconstitutional. Up until now no officer has attempted to levy any fines against the labour movement despite the existing bylaws allowing them to.

The question becomes, why have these bylaws to begin with? There are only two possible answers. They want to be able to levy fines on actions or events they don’t “like”, or they think fines will deter the actions from occurring to begin with. I have already explained why the notion of deterrence has no effect on those with money, and if they think individual officers want to decide which actions are “good” and which are “bad”, they are oblivious to what is happening on the ground in our communities.

So what’s left? They must be hoping to deter those without money from violating these bylaws. We shouldn’t have to explain that our democratic rights don’t only belong to those with money and why any attempt to do so should be stopped dead in its tracks, so we’re not going to waste your time doing that here. They must then be thinking that someone who has no money and in some cases is risking their life multiple times a day is going to care about a fine they aren’t even thinking about having to pay? By issuing tickets for bylaw violations to people with no fixed addresses all we are doing is making it more difficult for them to get back on their feet when they are ready and capable. Isn’t that the goal? To make it easier for people to get back on their feet so they can. It doesn’t take an expert to understand that making it harder for them to get back on their feet will not achieve the change we are trying to create in our communities. In fact, it will have the opposite effect.

For these reasons we are strongly advocating that City Council vote down these recommendations from City Administration as they have been presented. If you want to share your views with your elected representatives on February 14^th click HERE, select “City Council”, put in the date 2024 – 02 – 14, and indicate agenda item “6.1” and fill out the rest of the form to register to speak.

We know our community is facing many difficulties right now and there is a lot that must be done to ensure that Edmonton stays the best place to live and raise a family in our province. But these proposals do absolutely nothing to achieve this and need to be dismissed in their current form. We hope to see you there and look forward to continuing to fight to maintain our democratic rights and the rights of working people with you by our side.

The post Public Spaces Bylaw & Why We Fight! appeared first on Edmonton District Labour Council.

As we all know, due to record levels of inflation across the world workers everywhere have seen their buying power diminish drastically. We know that any increase in wages that is below inflation means a real pay cut to the buying power of working Edmontonians.

Workers without the benefit of a union often get paid the default “market wages” so it is up to workers with a union to make sure that the market reflects what workers deserve. Through bargaining and potentially withholding your labour you can ensure that you not only get the wages you deserve, but that workers without the benefit of a union, are able to demand their worth from their employers as well. As so many Albertans are pushed to the brink it falls to public employers to be better and their workers to accept nothing less than what they deserve.

With 250,000 unionized workers in this province in strike position in 2024 all unionized workers must “hold the line” and fight to set the precedence for better working conditions all. The EDLC and our members in the Edmonton area stand with you and are ready to do their part to support this fight. When the workers are united, they can never be defeated and for now it falls to you to send a strong message to the City. You work tirelessly for our communities and need to demand respect for the work that you do and wages that reflect it.

If you stand strong, we have no doubt that you will achieve a contract that gets you all that you deserve for your hard work and dedication that makes our city great!

In Solidarity!

The post Solidarity with CSU 52 appeared first on Edmonton District Labour Council.

These public service workers have delivered for Canadians day in and day out. Join them on the picket line to show the government it’s time for them to be there for Canada’s workers. It’s time to take action because bills can’t wait, and neither can we, we need to fight for fair contracts NOW!

• Minister Boissonnault 10235 124 St. Edmonton AB Directions
• Canada Place 9700 Jasper Ave. Edmonton AB Directions
• RCMP ‘K’ Division 11140 109 St. Edmonton AB Directions
• DND Garrison195 Ave. & 97 St. Edmonton AB Directions
• Edmonton Area Parole Office 9530 101 Ave. Edmonton AB Directions
• Women’s Institution 11151 178 St. Edmonton AB Directions
• West Campus 18807 Stony Plan Rd. Edmonton AB Directions
• Edmonton Institution 21611 Meridian St. Edmonton AB Directions

The post PSAC TAKES IT TO THE LINES! appeared first on Edmonton District Labour Council.

Power and Participation in Negotiations is a three-part training focused on the shift to transparent, big and open negotiations, and how this approach can build power in your workplace and beyond. This course will be led by O4P lead trainer Jane McAlevey, who has spent her life applying this approach in hard negotiations.

This course, unlike our Core Fundamentals training, does require reading. It will function as a dynamic online global reading group, presuming that your group has met once prior to October 1st to start discussing the preface and introduction to the report, and that your group will follow along as we move through other chapters, discussing them together over the course of October. Each of our three sessions will involve interactive participation, and participants will leave with a concrete understanding of how to shift their work to winning more.

Power and Participation in Negotiations will take place at 10 am on three Saturdays in October – the 1st, 15th and 29th – with each session lasting two hours.

This training can only be taken by groups of 10+ who have completed the Organizing 4 Power course. As always the EDLC is happy to facilitate this and could “vouch” for those who are working on this project within their unions but have yet to complete the original course. If you have allies in your union working on achieving Big & Open Bargaining for your members please extend to them this invitation.

Please register BY THE END OF AUGUST using the form below, we look forward to seeing you there!