Last month, the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees published an update regarding contract negotiations for senior care workers.
AUPE represents over 100 workers who are employed at Scenic Acres, a 148-suite retirement residence in Calgary, where they provide independent and assisted-living services.
The facility in northwest Calgary is owned by Revera Inc., and asset management company, who contracts out the operation of Scenic Acres to Cogir Senior Living.
The workers affected by this contract include health care aides, licensed practical nurses, recreation therapists, cooks, dietary aides, housekeeping aides, activity aides, bus drivers, and those employed in reception and front desk responsibilities.
Their most recent collective agreement expired in December 2024, over a year ago. However, bargaining did not begin until this past October.
During the second round of bargaining, which was held last month, Cogir told the workers’ bargaining team that they were offering a wage increases of 2.2%.
No, that is not per year. That is spread out over 2 years: so 1.1% per year.
The bargaining team for the workers told them that the offer was “insulting and completely unacceptable”.
And rightly so. If that proposal was adopted, it would be the lowest wage increase these workers would have received since unionizing in 2014.
Take a look for yourself. Here are all the wage increases from the 3 collective agreements these workers have ratified since unionizing.
| 1 January 2016 | 2.75% |
| 1 January 2017 | 2.50% |
| 1 January 2018 | 2.00% |
| 1 January 2019 | 2.00% |
| 1 January 2020 | 1.75% |
| 1 January 2021 | 1.50% |
| 1 January 2022 | 1.25% |
| 1 January 2023 | 1.25% |
| 1 January 2024 | 1.75% |
| 15 February 2024 | 1.00% |
| 1 July 2024 | 0.25% |
Now, to be fair, that last wage increase is technically lower than the proposed increases of 1.1% per year, but if you add up all the raises in 2024, these workers were making 3% more in the second half of 2024 than they were at the end of 2023.
If we add up all these increases, these workers are getting paid 18% more now than they were at the start of their first unionized agreement, ratified back in 2015.
For context, between January 2015 and July 2024, the consumer price index in Alberta jumped by 39.4 points, from 131.0 points to 170.4 points. That is a 30.08% increase.
So, even though these workers have received a combined increase of 18% (not including compounded increases) in their first 3 collective agreements, inflation of over 30% have actually resulted in a cut to real wages of 12.08%.
There is no way a raise of 2.2% will make up for a wage gap that is 5 times that amount, especially once we factor in inflation during the last half of 2024, inflation last year, and inflation this year.
No wonder the workers’ bargaining team found this offer insulting.
But the disappointment did not stop there. The workers’ bargaining team reported last week that they tabled several proposals to Cogir, who subsequently rejected every one of them.
The proposals from the workers included improvements in the following areas:
- Overtime
- Shift and weekend premiums
- Stat holidays
- Annual vacation
- Sick leave
- Bereavement
- Special leave
- Uniform allowance
- Registration fees
- RRSP
- Wage proposals with grid adjustments
Not only did Cogir reject each of these improvements, according to the workers’ bargaining team, but they did so with very little discussion—or, in some cases, no discussion at all.
The workers’ bargaining team even tried taking some of their non-monetary proposals off the table to motivate Cogir to bargain monetary proposals in good faith, but it did not work.
In fact, they even proposed rollbacks, such as removing double time pay for any overtime worked beyond two hours and changing paid bereavement travel time to unpaid.
There are no new bargaining dates set up.
Their last collective agreement was ratified 9 months before it expired, and the agreement prior to that one was ratified 6 months prior to expiry.
Scenic Acres may technically be under new management, but they do not seem any more eager than the previous employer to reach a new agreement quickly.
2 replies on “Calgary care home proposed 1.1% annual raise”
That offer, is so poor it borders on unfair bargaining. It really displays how the asset managers feel about the value of these care workers. The union really needs to respond in a very strong way.
The Asset Management corp probably feels the same way about the residents of that lodge. As a retired skilled union tradesmen we would taken that offer back and told them to stick it.
Absolutely.