Earlier month, the Mediation Services department of Alberta Jobs, Economy, and Trade published the April 2025 Bargaining Update.
This monthly report provides information about the unionized workforce, primarily in Alberta. In April, Mediation Services received settlement information regarding 20 private sector and 19 public sector bargaining settlements, covering 990 and 43,727 workers respectively.
Among those settlements was a contract for about 250 gas bar workers throughout Alberta who are employed by Canadian Mobility Services.
Owned by Shell Canada, the employer purchased over 50 fuel and convenience retail outlets a couple of years ago from Empire Company Limited, which used to operate them under the Sobeys and Safeway brands.
This collective agreement applies to all worker employed at 32 gas bars in communities throughout Alberta, including Calgary, Camrose, Cochrane, Edmonton, Fort McMurray, Fort Saskatchewan, Grande Prairie, Lethbridge, Lloydminster Medicine Hat, Red Deer, Sherwood Park St. Albert, and Stony Plain. It doesn’t include supervisors or any other positions above that rank.
The workers are represented by Local 401 of the United Food & Commercial Workers, and this is the first collective agreement they’ve ratified under the new employer.
Their previous contract actually expired in September 2022. Their new contract, however, wasn’t ratified until September 2024 and is effective as of ratification, so it looks like they’ll have 2 years of work not covered by any changes in the new contract.
This contract runs until September 2026, so it is for just 2 years. That’s shorter than their last contract, which was for 4 years.
This new collective agreement includes wage increases in every one of those two years.
| 10 September 2024 | 10.00% |
| Year 2 | 10.00% |
That’s a combined 20%. This works out to an average of, well, 10% per year.
Now a 20% raise might sound like a lot, but you have to keep in mind two things. They hadn’t received a wage increase in 6 years, since their last raise in 2018.
As well, even with these two increases, all of these workers will still be making less than $20 an hour. The lower your wage, the higher the percentage increase. The lowest wage for these workers, for example, will have increased from $15.05 in 2018 to $16.56 last year and $18.22 sometime later this year.
Here are some highlights of other things that have changed in this new contract.
Every time Canadian Mobility Services hires a new worker, they’re supposed to send the name of that worker to the union. This new contract says that the hiring date and contact information for that worker must now accompany the name.
The following clause has been added to the collective agreement regarding digital union security cards.
The Union shall provide the Company with a fillable digital Union Security Card, each new employee at the time of employment with the Company shall fill out the Union Security Card. Following completion, the Company shall transfer the Union Security Card to the Union within 2 weeks. The Company agrees to provide the Union with a full list of new hires at the end of each month, including the hire date so that the Union can complete up to a 1-hour paid Union orientation for new staff.
In addition to the employer deducting union dues and initiation fees from workers’ paycheques, they’ll now deduct any assessments as authorized by Local 401.
In the previous collective agreement, if the shop steward was unavailable to attend a potential disciplinary meeting for a worker, then they could have any Local 401 shop steward attend, or any fellow worker of their choice if that person was also unavailable. The Local 401 shop steward option has been removed from the collective agreement, as has the fellow worker option. Now, if the local shop steward is unavailable, the employer must let UFCW know 24 hours before the meeting, and they’ll send their own labour relations officer.
If no workers employed at a particular worksite are unavailable to cover a shift, the employer can bring in workers from other locations, something that wasn’t explicitly mentioned in the previous agreement.
In the previous agreement, workers who had to work for at least 9 hours received an additional 10-minute break during their shift. That has been increased to 15 minutes.
Workers are now entitled to 10 hours off between shifts, up from 8 hours in the previous agreement.
The premium for workers assigned to relive gas bar operators will increase from 50¢ per hour worked to 75¢ per hour worked. As well, if the worker has to relieve their coworkers for 2 weeks or more, they’ll get an extra $2 an hour. The cutoff used to be 3 weeks.
Funeral leave has been renamed bereavement leave, and it has changed from unpaid to paid. There was no limit to the leave in the previous agreement, but now it’s set to 4 days.
The contract has added the following clauses:
23.02 The Company agrees to maintain adequate heating, cooling, and lighting facilities in each Gas Bar while work is being performed in the location.
23.03 Anti–fatigue mats are to be placed at the tills. When the Union or an employee raises an issue within a Gas Bar regarding the supply of anti-fatigue mats, the Company agrees to meet with the Union, when requested, to discuss and resolve the issue.
23.04 The Company agrees to act reasonably when requesting a medical note. The Company will meet with the Union and an employee if they have identified a trend, that will require medical documentation in the future.
23.05 The Company agrees there shall be zero tolerance for customer rudeness, impropriety, and abuse. No employee shall be required to continue to serve a customer who has engaged in any of these behaviours.
Workers can request a transfer to another gas bar location now. Related to that, if a vacancy comes up at one location, Canadian Mobility Services must consider all transfer requests before hiring new workers.
There was also a new section added regarding worker rights:
The Company recognizes the vital role that employees play in the success of the business. Without restricting the generality of the foregoing, the Company agrees that all employees shall have the following rights:
- The right to a healthy and safe work environment
- The right to be free from discrimination, intimidation, and harassment
- The right to be informed of all workplace rights, obligations, policies, and rules
- The right to be treated with dignity and respect in all circumstances.
Finally, language throughout the agreement was adjusted to become more gender neutral: “their” instead of “his/her”, for example.
