A labour leader in right-wing Alberta is like a nun in a bordello – scorned and barely tolerated, yet stubbornly determined to keep faith against all odds.

There must be easier ways to make a buck. When Dan MacLennan, leader of the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees, isn’t sparring with the bosses, he’s getting back-handed by his ex-pals in the labour movement.

“Unions are the most conservative of organizations, at least at the highest level. They oppose change in every single way,” grumbled MacLennan, whose AUPE union, Alberta’s largest, has been under suspension by the Canadian Labour Congress and the Alberta Federation of Labour since 2001.

Nobody could accuse MacLennan of being conservative. Creative, yes, and relentlessly pragmatic. He’s had to learn how to roll with a punch.

Dave Olecko photo, Business Edge
AUPE’s Dan MacLennan spends just as much time sparring with other unions as he does fighting Alberta’s ‘prehistoric’ labour laws.

Alberta unions are straight-jacketed by prehistoric labour laws which could have been written by a Mississippi plantation owner, pre-emancipation.

And since the province introduced its Labour Relations Amendment Act (a.k.a. Bill 27) last year, about 80 per cent of AUPE’s 58,000 members (including 26,000 health-care workers) are without the legal right to strike. In response to Bill 27, which robbed the right to strike from many community health-care staffers while reducing the number of bargaining units in each health region, MacLennan and AUPE were forced into a war.

Not a war with legislators or bosses but with another union. National labour bigwigs were predictably steamed when AUPE “raided” 6,800 new members from the Canadian Union of Public Employees after CUPE members opted to bolt in a series of runoff votes. (AUPE was originally suspended for similar raids three years ago.)

But MacLennan would do it again. Desperate times call for desperate measures.

“Larger numbers give us strength in bargaining. For most members, that’s all they care about. Union politics are probably the least relevant thing to union members there is,” MacLennan shrugged.

“Besides (the blacklist) has had a positive effect on our budget,” he said, brightening. “In 2003, we would have paid the House of Labour (i.e., the AFL and CLC) more than $2 million in affiliation fees.

“Now we’re pouring that money into our members’ education budget. The suspension has really helped our growth.”

It has also helped contribute to a $6-million war chest, should push come to shove.

Though AUPE membership has almost doubled during MacLennan’s six-year tenure, he has also run afoul of union purists for allegedly cosying up to the enemy.

But antagonism and confrontation aren’t MacLennan’s way. He’d rather buy lunch for Calgary Health Region CEO Jack Davis than rip him in public.

He’s issued press releases in praise of moves by Human Resources and Employment Minister Clint Dunford.

“Traditionally, unions have been negative and whiney. I don’t believe you should attack these people personally. It hurts your credibility,” MacLennan defended his approach.

And then there’s MacLennan’s supposedly tight relationship with Ralph Klein, the permanent premier.

“You should always be able to talk to the boss,” he reasoned. “If the government is the primary funder for more than 90 per cent of our members, I want to be careful picking my fights.”

For a guy whose style is said to be conciliatory, MacLennan has led his people into some wild scrapes, including illegal walkouts by 10,000-plus members two years ago that cost AUPE $400,000 in fines (the fine was later cut in half).

And there’ll be more fightin’ words in 2004, particularly on the health-care front.

AUPE must negotiate new region-wide contracts on behalf of auxiliary nursing care and general support service workers, under new rules spelled out by Bill 27.

And privatization, of course, is MacLennan’s No. 1 bugaboo. Public-private development partnerships (P3) will inevitably lead to fewer jobs, lower wages and serious deterioration in the quality of patient care, he insisted.

“(Private operators) are operating on a profit motive and the way to make profit is have fewer employees and to lower their wages and benefits,” he snapped. “Nobody lists on the Toronto Stock Exchange out of the goodness of their heart.”

Meanwhile, he chafes at woefully understaffed care centres and the sight of tiny female union members being asked to lift immobilized seniors on broken equipment.

Facially, the 44-year-old MacLennan resembles a Ralph Nader clone, except even more weary and careworn.

Must be quite a grind . . . right, Dan?

The sad eyes light up: “If they ever did get fair legislation here, it’d probably be boring,” MacLennan countered. “It’s busy . . . but Alberta’s a great place to run a union.”