Last week, the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees published an update on their website regarding contract negotiations for care home workers in Calgary.
AUPE represents over 150 workers employed by Newport Harbour Care Centre Partnership as licensed practical nurses, health care aides, recreation activity coordinators, cooks, and those working in dietary and housekeeping positinos.
The care centre located in northeast Calgary is a 127-room long-term care facility owned by the Vancouver-based Park Place Senior Living.
Workers at this care centre have been waiting since March 2024 for a new collective agreement. That is when their last one expired.
Representatives from Newport Harbour did not meet with the workers’ bargaining team until July 2024, almost 4 months after the most recent collective agreement expired. It was not until the following month that the two parties exchanged monetary proposals.
The employer’s initial proposal included an 8% wage increase over 4 years, or 8.24% if we account for compounding increases.
| 2024 | 2.00% |
| 2025 | 2.00% |
| 2026 | 2.00% |
| 2027 | 2.00% |
| 8.00% |
This is three-quarters of the 12% most public sector agreements have been getting over the last year and a half or so, so the workers bargaining team rejected it.
Here are a few other improvements Newport Harbour offered:
| Old | Proposed | |
|---|---|---|
| Evening shift differential | $2.75 | $3.00 |
| Night shift differential | $4.75 | $5.00 |
| Weekend shift differential | $3.20 | $3.50 |
| Health spending account | $300 | $400 |
| Professional fee coverage | $300 | $350 |
Plus, they suggested a new charge pay of $1.25 an hour for LPNs.
On the downside, they wanted to take away vacation days.
By this past February, the two parties had reached a tentative agreement, but the workers discovered that the provincial government had increased fnding for continuing care providers.
So the workers’ bargaining team went back to the table to ask for more.
During this past summer, Newport Harbour slightly increased their wage offer to 3.75% but just for the final year of the contract, bringing the combined total increased to 9.75%, still shy of the 12% everyone else is getting.
The workers had also been asking for market adjustments for LPNs (10%) and health care aides (4%) to help get their wages closer to what these workers would make if they worked with Alberta Health Services. Newport Harbour refused those, too.
Negotiations resumed earlier this month, during which, the workers’ bargaining team still insisted on a 12% wage increase over 4 years, even though this would be insufficient.
Take a look at their increases over their last 2 contracts:
| 1 April 2018* | 1.50% |
| 1 April 2019** | 2.00% |
| 1 April 2020 | 0.00% |
| 1 April 2021 | 0.00% |
| 14 October 2022 | 2.75% |
| 1 April 2023 | 1.25% |
| 7.50% |
** LPNs & HCAs got 1.5%
That works out to an average of just 1.25% per year, which is much lower than annual inflation.
In fact, between April 2017 and April 2023, the consumer price index in Alberta increased 26.3 points, from 137.4 points to 163.7 points. That is a 19.14% jump.
Because inflation was 19.14% during the period when these workers got just 7.5% in raises, they were left with a cut to real wages of 11.64% at the end of their last collective agreement.
Even if they got a 12% wage increase in the new collective agreement, it would get eaten up almost entirely by the lost wages over the last two contracts.
Plus, that 12% would be over 4 years, which means another 4 years of inflation, which has already increased 9.10% since their last raise in April 2023.
The workers’ bargaining team has also asked for a minimum wage of $22.65 an hour for all workers, which is less than the 2025 living wage ($26.50) for Calgary.
For reference, the starting wages for health care aides, recreation activity coordinators, housekeepers, and dietary workers was less than $20 an hour at the end of the last agreements. Cooks were just 9¢ over $20 an hour for their starting wage.
Workers are still insisting on market adjustments for health care aides and licensed practical nurses.
Newport Harbour agreed to increase their initial offer to shift differentials.
| Old | 1st offer | New offer | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Evening shift | $2.75 | $3.00 | $3.25 |
| Night shift | $4.75 | $5.00 | $5.25 |
| Weekend shift | $3.20 | $3.50 | $4.00 |
The employer told the workers’ bargaining team that they are meeting with the provincial government next week regarding funding. After that meeting, they will draft a full response to the outstanding monetary demands the workers have put forward.
