Last week, the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees published an update on contract negotiations for workers employed by Bow Valley College.
Located in downtown Calgary, Bow Valley College is the only community college in the city.
The roughly 300 AUPE members employed by the college include administrative support, administrative officers, business development officers, library workers, nurses, equipment workers, and sign language interpreters.
These workers have been without a new collective agreement since their last one expired over a year ago, in June 2024. And that one was not ratified until the end of 2022, 2.5 years after the previous one had expired.
Bargaining between the workers and Bow Valley College began about a year ago.
The bargaining committee for the workers published their first update regarding this round of negotiations back in April. In that update, the committee claimed that Bow Valley College was offering a 10% wage increase over 4 years.
| 2024 | 3.0% |
| 2025 | 3.0% |
| 2026 | 2.0% |
| 2027 | 2.0% |
In response, the workers’ bargaining committee countered with 26% over just 3 years.
| 2024 | 13.0% |
| 2025 | 6.5% |
| 2026 | 6.5% |
This works out to an average of 8.67% per year, compared to an annual average of 2.5% offered by the college.
Now, 26% might seem like a lot, but take a look at what wage increases have been like for these workers over the last two collective agreements.
| 1 July 2017 | 0.00% |
| 1 July 2018 | 0.00% |
| 1 July 2019 | 1.00% |
| 1 July 2020 | 0.00% |
| 1 July 2021 | 0.00% |
| 1 July 2022 | 0.00% |
| 1 April 2023 | 1.25% |
| 1 December 2023 | 1.50% |
They received a combined 3.75% since July 2016, which is an average increase of 0.47% per year.
During the same period, the consumer price index in Alberta increased 34.8 points, from 135.6 to 170.4. That is a 25.66% jump.
With inflation hitting 25.66% and wages increasing just 3.75%, these workers were left with a decrease in real wages of 21.91% heading into this round of bargaining.
A 26% wage increase would cover that shortfall of nearly 22%, leaving 4.09% to cover the last 2 years of the contract.
The offer from Bow Valley College, however, would reduce the real wage cut to just 11.91%. But that is still nearly 12% behind inflation. Also, keep in mind that the college’s offer is spread out over 4 years, which would mean 4 more years of inflation, increasing that real wage gap again.
In last week’s update, the bargaining team for these workers reported that Bow Valley College has refused to budge on their wage offer over the last 6 months.
Since April’s update, the bargaining team has surveyed workers regarding negotiations, and the survey results have prompted them to begin “revising our monetary proposals to reflect the results”. They said they are also considering what AUPE members recently received from the Government of Alberta as an employer.
That new collective agreement includes increases recommended by a mediator:
| 1 April 2024 | 3.00% |
| 1 April 2025 | 3.00% |
| 1 April 2026 | 3.00% |
| 1 April 2027 | 3.00% |
This is a combined increase of 12%, which is similar to what other public sector workers have received this year (for example, here, here, here, here, here, and here).
Bow Valley College workers should not be surprised to hear that their wage proposal drops down to the same amount.
For context, a 12% increase would be a movement of 2 points from Bow Valley College’s original offer, but it would be a change of 14 points from the worker’s original offer.
The two parties will not meet again until December.
