If you work in the province of Alberta, chances are you have a pretty good sense of how the labour laws operate and how they may or may not help you.

If you are a union activist or a group of workers wanting to join a union, you really start to see how the labour laws are stacked against you. If you are a farm worker, a live-in caregiver or a temporary foreign worker, then you see the full weight of our province's injustice.

Labour law matters. Employers know that, which is why they spend so much energy lobbying to keep standards low and union protections thin. Workers need a similar understanding so that we can more effectively advocate for our interests. In Alberta that is never easy - the political cards are rarely dealt in our favour - but it is a necessary effort if we are to ensure that all workers in Alberta have safe, fair and reliable work.

The primary mandate of Union is to inform interested Albertans and union activists in particular about issues that affect them. And so this third issue of Union looks at the state of labour law in Alberta.

Labour law is a huge topic and so obviously we can only cover a small slice of the issues related to workers' rights and protections. Yet we hope it offers a starting point for you to consider the various ways in which our laws need to be reformed so that workers can get a fairer deal in Alberta.

I hope you enjoy this issue of Union and I encourage you to sign up for a subscription if you haven't already.