AUPE and other unions, who remembered Alberta Premier Peter Lougheed's 1971 pre-election promises of full bargaining rights for public employees. Instead, Lougheed's government passed the most restrictive labour legislation in Canada, which included compulsory arbitration designed to favour employers. AUPE's first decade AUPE's inception took place in 1976, the same year that Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Elliot Trudeau announced wage and price controls with an Anti-Inflation Board, making it illegal for employers to negotiate pay increases above a certain guideline. AUPE worked on consolidating its strength under the leadership of John Booth, who took over the presidency in 1977. Under Booth, AUPE built a reputation as a union willing to openly contest the government of Alberta. At the 1979 Convention, Booth asked delegates to make 1980 a "test year" for negotiations. AUPE then took on the government with its "Apples & Oranges Campaign," a reference to claim by government members that comparing 47-per-cent pay raises for MLAs with single-digit pay raises for public employees was like comparing apples and oranges. Unsuccessful negotiations were followed by strike action, and more than 3,000 AUPE members hit the bricks in the summer of 1980 — fully aware that their action was illegal. AUPE won that strike, effectively challenging existing arbitration rules and the ban on strikes. By AUPE's fifth annual convention in October 1980, membership stood at over 41,000 — half of them women. In 1982, AUPE moved into its new headquarters on 170 Street in Edmonton and established regional offices throughout the province. When the government tried to impose on arbitrators a ceiling of eight percent on annual pay increases, AUPE launched a campaign called "The Apple Rides Again" — forcefully reminding the government of what had happened in 1980. With the threat of conflict in the air, AUPE won major gains at arbitration, far in excess of the premier's "Eight Per Cent Solution." Hard times hit Alberta in 1983 and the government began to cut jobs. AUPE's membership had touched 52,500, but by 1984 had dipped to 47,500. The Union responded with aggressive organizing in municipal government and the health care sector. Patricia (Pat) Wocknitz was elected president at the beginning of this difficult period. One of her first acts was to call a special constitutional convention in 1985 to reduce the Provincial Executive to 28 members. The government began to step up privatization and AUPE's membership shrank that year to