ATA urges AUMA to take action on living wage
Shelley Svidal, ATA News
The Alberta Teachers’ Association is urging the Alberta Urban Municipalities Association (AUMA) to encourage its members to determine a local living wage rate in consultation with their communities.
On March 6, Dennis Theobald, ATA coordinator of communications, and Bill Moore-Kilgannon, executive director of Public Interest Alberta, made a presentation on current directive 8.B.37 to the AUMA’s Standing Committee on Municipal Governance. Adopted by the 2008 Annual Representative Assembly, current directive 8.B.37 urges the AUMA and the Alberta Association of Municipal Districts and Counties "to encourage their members to determine, in consultation with employers, labour unions and social service organizations, a local living wage rate sufficient to allow workers to support their families and maintain a safe, healthy standard of living in their community."
Theobald told the committee that the Association has been addressing poverty issues for at least 15 years. He pointed out that many societal problems are visited on classrooms and that many children in poverty are the sons and daughters of working families. "Ameliorating poverty is one important way of improving the performance of students in school," he said. He indicated that the current directive asks the AUMA, as a first step, to encourage its members to determine a local living wage rate. That determination, in turn, may eventually influence municipalities’ payment practices for employees and contractors.
Moore-Kilgannon pointed out that 77,595 or 1 in 10 Alberta children lives in poverty as defined by Statistics Canada’s low-income cut-off. Noting that Public Interest Alberta is encouraging all levels of government to work with organizations to develop a comprehensive poverty reduction strategy, he identified a living wage as part of any such strategy. Over 150 cities in the United States have living wage policies, as well as such organizations as Harvard University and the Los Angeles Airport Authority. While what constitutes a living wage varies from community to community and while the services or lack thereof that municipalities provide affect determination of that living wage, living wage policies establish a level playing field for employees and contractors. They also strengthen communities by reducing working families’ reliance on food banks and other social supports.
On March 11, the City of Calgary’s Standing Policy Committee on Finance and Corporate Services decided to recommend to Calgary City Council that the city become the first community in Canada to adopt a living wage policy. The policy, which sets the living wage rate at $13.25 an hour exclusive of benefits, would apply only to the city’s regular employees, all of whom currently earn more than $13.25 an hour. City council is expected to vote on the policy in early 2010.
The Association anticipates a formal response from the AUMA to current directive 8.B.37. The AUMA represents the province’s 284 urban municipalities, including cities, towns, villages, summer villages and specialized municipalities.
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