Last week, the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees published an update on their website regarding contract negotiations for workers employed by ATB Financial.
Originally established as Alberta Treasury Branches in 1938, ATB Financial is a Crown corporation owned by the Alberta government. It is the largest public bank in North America, the largest Alberta-based financial institution, and the only entirely provincially-owned financial institution in Canada.
Although, ATB Financial employes over 5,000 workers, AUPE represents a few hundred. In February 2022, when the workers ratified their last collective agreement, only about 560 workers belonged to this bargaining unit.
According to the unionization certificate the Alberta Labour Relations Board awarded the workers in 1997, this is all workers who are “employed in administrative and support services”.
This includes branch assistants, workplace assistants, customer service representatives, customer coordinators, document operations coordinators, loan service clerks, file coordinators, credit assistants, records coordinators, administrative officers, fulfillment cards specialists, and operations assistants.
In their previous agreement, these workers numbered over 1,000. Two agreements before that had the number above 2,000.
The most recent collective agreement for these workers expired nearly 2 years ago, in March 2024. And while that may seem a long time to reach a new agreement, this has been the standard for quite a while.
Take a look at the dates for their last several collective agreements.
| Effective | Settled | Overdue by |
|---|---|---|
| 2020-04-01 | 2022-02-11 | 22 months |
| 2017-04-01 | 2019-05-23 | 23 months |
| 2014-04-01 | 2016-06-04 | 22 months |
| 2011-04-01 | 2012-02-03 | 10 months |
| 2009-04-01 | 2010-08-20 | 16 months |
Granted, even though this most recent contract expired back in March, bargaining for a new contract did not even begin until 2 months later.
According to last week’s update, the bargaining team for the workers has reached a tentative agreement with ATB Financial.
If ratified, the new collective agreement will give workers a 3% wage increase every year for 4 years, for a combined increase of 12% (or 12.55% if we account for compound increases). The first 2 increases will be retroactive.
ATB Financial had originally offered 7.5% over 4 years, so this is quite a bit more. However, the workers had proposed 26% over 3 years, which is a much bigger gap.
If the workers ratify this offer, they will have to accept a combined increase that is 14 percentage points smaller than what they offered. ATB Financial, on the other hand, has to fork over only an extra 4.5 percentage points.
Clearly, the workers are being asked to make the larger concession. This was definitely not a meet-in-the-middle type of agreement, at least when it comes to wages.
Plus, take a look at the wage increases these workers have received since 2016.
| 1 April 2017 | 0.00% |
| 1 April 2018 | 0.00% |
| 1 April 2019 | 1.00% |
| 1 April 2020 | 0.00% |
| 1 April 2021 | 0.00% |
| 1 April 2022 | 0.00% |
| 1 January 2023 | 1.25% |
| 1 September 2023 | 1.50% |
Over an 8-year period, ATB Financial gave these workers a combined increase of just 3.75%. They gave them more wage freezes than they gave them wage increases.
During the same period, the consumer price index in Alberta increased 33 points, from 135.1 points in April 2016 to 168.6 points in April 2024, when their last contract expired. That is a jump of 24.79%.
Because these workers got a combined wage increase of 3.75% during a period when inflation was 24.79%, they were left with a cut to real wages of 21.05% heading into negotiations for their new collective agreement.
The 26% wage increase over 3 years would have been enough to cover that 21% shortfall. 12% over 4 years will not be. Even if we are generous and include the the compound increases to make it 12.55%.
A 12.55% increase from ATB Financial will get that real wage cut down to 8.49%. But keep in mind that this is over 4 years, which means 4 more years of inflation.
Inflation in the first year (April 2024 to April 2025) of this proposed new collective agreement was nearly 1.5%, bringing the real wage cut back up to double digits. And that is just the first year.
By the time this new agreement expires in March 2028, assuming it is even ratified, ATB Financial’s workers will be even more behind the cost of living.
As well, the bargaining team announced that there would be a 1.5% in-range progression in every year of the contract, if ratified, for workers who have taken on an expanded scope of responsibility that does not justify reclassification of the position but is still a significant enough increase within the current classification.
Even if everyone got that, it still would not be enough to cover the 8.5% shortfall, let alone whatever the shortfall will be after 4 years of more inflation.
Here are some more proposed changes to the contract, as mentioned by the workers’ bargaining team.
Workers who take on the responsibilities of a higher-level position for at least 5 days qualify for acting pay. In the previous collective agreement, that was a minimum of 5% of their regular pay rate and a maximum of 10%. The tentative agreement has proposed removing that maximum.
Annual paid vacation time would increase from 2 weeks to 3 weeks for workers who have been with ATB Financially for 2 years or less. Those with 10 years of service will see their vacation time increase from 3 weeks to 4 weeks. Everyone else will stay the same.
Special leave to attend the birth or adoption of a child would increase from 3 days to 5 days.
The supplemental employment benefit plan, which provides birthing parents with 6 weeks of 100% salary if their are on employment insurance while on parental leave, would expand to include non-birthing parents.
Today and tomorrow, the bargaining team will be holding town halls with the workers to answer questions and share more information about negotiations.
The ratification vote will occur from the 22nd until the 30th.
