Last month, the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees published an update on their website regarding contract negotiations for care workers in Calgary.
These 100 or so workers are employed by Signature Living (Rocky Ridge) Management Ltd. at their Rocky Ridge Retirement Community in northwest Calgary.
Signature Living, a Toronto-based company, owns 16 care homes for older adults across Canada.
The workers are in such positions as dishwashers, cooks, servers, housekeepers, health care aides, licensed practical nurses, concierges, lifestyle assistants, drivers, and maintenance assistants.
The most recent collective agreement for these workers expired in December 2024, nearly 2 years ago. Signature Living did not meet with the workers’s bargaining team until June 2025 to begin negotiation the new agreement.
Bargaining on monetary items, however, did not begin until this past April.
At the time, the workers’ bargaining committee proposed a 3% raise every year in a 4-year contract, which is similar to most other public sector bargaining agreements ratified last year and this year.
Signature Living, however, countered with just a 1% raise per year over only 3 years.
Just to be clear, the workers asked for a combined 12%, and the employer lowballed with a measly 3%.
How about we put these two proposals into some context. First, here are the wage increases from the last two contracts:
| 1 July 2018 | 0.00% |
| 1 July 2019 | 0.00% |
| 1 July 2020 | 0.00% |
| 1 July 2021 | 1.00% |
| 1 July 2022 | 2.00% |
| 1 July 2023 | 1.00% |
| 1 July 2024 | 2.00% |
| 6.00% |
These workers unionized back in 2018. However, because they did not ratify their first collective agreement until 2021, they never received any wage increases during the first 3 years of that collective agreement, and there were no retroactive increases.
As a result, their wages were effectively frozen until their first increase in the summer of 2021.
Now, let us compare this to inflation.
In July 2017, the consumer price index in Alberta was 137.0. It increased 33.4 points by July 2024 to 170.4. That is a jump of 24.38%.
Because these workers received a wage increase of only 6% during a period when inflation was over 24%, they ended up with a cut to real wages of 18.38%.
The 3% increase proposed by Signature Living will not be anywhere close enough to cover the loss in wages these workers have had to endure. Even the 12% offered by the workers’ bargaining team falls short.
Plus, keep in mind that because those wages are spread out over several years, rather than being given all at once, that means there will be several years of more inflation, too. This will drive the real wage cut even higher.
Inflation since July 2024, for example, has already hit 4.81%.
Since the two parties were so far apart on wage proposals, the workers’ bargaining team decided in June to file for informal mediation.
The first mediation session was on 19 October. Unfortunately, in the 6 months since the two parties met, Signature Living did not have a change of heart, insisting in mediation that they are not willing to go above 3% over 3 years.
It was clear to the mediator after just one session that bargaining was at an impasse. The next step is formal mediation. Before they can do that, however, the workers must develop an essential service agreement with the employer, which is also necessary for work action, such as a strike, if it ever comes down to it.
No date has been set for formal mediation.
