The Edmonton and District Labour Council upset the losing mayoral candidate in St. Albert’s election by opting to endorse incumbent mayor Nolan Crouse.
Shelley Biermanski was the challenger for the mayor’s seat in the recent municipal election and belongs to the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 401 via employment with Safeway. She was shocked and frustrated to find out from a mail-out sent to her through her union that her competitor Crouse had been endorsed by the Edmonton and District Labour Council.
She wasn’t aware it was an option to apply for one, she said.
When contacted, Brian Henderson, president of the Edmonton and District Labour Council, said St. Albert’s endorsements were decided through a combination of recommendations and an application process. Crouse and incumbent Coun. Wes Brodhead were both recommended by the local wing of CUPE, Henderson said. He said David Climenhaga and Tim Osborne both went through the application process, where they answered a survey and were then interviewed.
The Edmonton and District Labour Council endorsed candidates in the Edmonton’s mayoral, council and school board races, a council candidate in Fort Saskatchewan as well as its St. Albert endorsements.
“As soon as we found out who were the candidates we tried to contact them ourselves by sending them the survey information,” Henderson said. “Did we get every candidate? No.”
Henderson said he was unable to reach Biermanski and couldn’t “honestly say” if he did try to reach her.
They had decided endorsements in the various municipalities well before nomination deadline, Henderson said. They had to make the decision by about mid-June so they could arrange printing of mail-outs with the Canadian Labour Congress. Costs for the mail-outs were split between the Edmonton Labour Council and the national arm, he said.
In some of the municipalities candidates who declared later than mid-June were out of luck, Henderson said. Biermanski announced her candidacy in May.
In St. Albert there were some phone calls and some mail-outs, but Henderson said it was just to one specific union – UCFW 401.
“I would assume it would have been a couple hundred (mail-outs). I can only assume that because it was a specific affiliate that mailed to their membership with our endorsement,” Henderson said.
This was the first time they’ve waded into St. Albert municipal politics with direct endorsements, but Henderson said they’ve dabbled here before, hosting things like forums in the early 2000s for candidates.
They did endorsements in this region this election “because we were asked to do it and after the executive and the political action committee debated the issue for quite some time, we decided we were going to do it,” Henderson said.
While Biermanski is a union member, that doesn’t mean she would have clinched a nomination over Crouse.
“Do they automatically get endorsed if they’re union members? No. We try and keep it open,” Henderson said.
He hadn’t been aware Biermanski was a union member until after the election.
“Our process was thorough. It was fair and open. It’s unfortunate that she had missed the process, and I mean that sincerely, it’s too bad … but things happen,” Henderson said.
Biermanski said she was definitely not contacted by the Edmonton and District Labour Council. If she’d known such an endorsement was up for grabs, she would have applied for it, she said.
“Why are they even endorsing anyone without knowing who they’re running against?” Biermanski said.
She doesn’t agree with their policy of not necessarily endorsing union members, either.
“I wouldn’t be okay with that because they shouldn’t be endorsing people with union funds if people aren’t even anything close to union type people, ’cause it’s unions that are funding it, right? So in a sense it was my dollars that paid for his (Crouse’s) campaign endorsement,” she said.
She said there are over 500 members of UCFW Local 401 in St. Albert, so they might all have gotten the mail-out, she said.
When Biermanski contacted the Canadian Labour Congress after the election, they suggested if she runs again she contact them well in advance, she said.
Amanda Freistadt, a personnel representative with the Canadian Labour Congress based in Edmonton, said there were about 130 calls made in addition to the direct mail-outs.
