Last month, the Mediation Services department of Alberta Jobs, Economy, and Trade published the February 2025 Bargaining Update.
This monthly report provides information about the unionized workforce, primarily in Alberta. In February, Mediation Services received settlement information regarding 16 private sector and 5 public sector bargaining settlements, covering 1,598 and 3,407 workers respectively.
Among those settlements was a contract for about 100 workers employed by SSB Canada, also known as SSH Bedding Canada Co or Serta Simmons Bedding.
Based out of Georgia, the the company is one of the largest mattress manufacturers in the world. They have two manufacturing facilities: one in Toronto and one in Calgary
The workers in this collective agreement work at the Calgary factory and include custodians, maintenance technicians, cutters, quilters, coil operators loaders, sorters, assemblers, shippers, drivers, mechanics, electricians, instrumentation technicians, and analysts.
They’re represented by Local 955 of the International Union of Operating Engineers.
The previous contract expired this past December. This new contract was settled back in January, less than a month after the last one expired.
The new collective agreement is for 3 years, which is less than the 4-year term in the previous agreement.
These workers are set to receive wage increases in every year of their new contract.
| 1 January 2025 | $1.60–11.73 |
| 1 January 2026 | $0.50 |
| 1 January 2027 | $0.50 |
These are per hour wage increases, and the first-year increases varied depending on the level of the wage grid each position fell under.
This works out to a combined increase of between 12.9% and 55.3%, depending on the position, over the course of the contract. That’s 4.3–18.43% per year on average.
In their last contract, these workers got a wage freeze in their first year, followed by 1.5% in their second year, and 2.5% each in the final two years. That is a combined 6.5%, or an annual average of 1.63%.
There is one catch with the new increases, however. If a worker is already making more than the new minimums, they will get an increase of just 80¢ in the first year and 60¢ in both the second and third year.
Here’s a look at what else has changed between the previous collective agreement and the new one.
Under the previous agreement, workers automatically became members of the union after being employed for 45 days. That’s been increased to 60 days in the new agreement. This also affects when seniority kicks in.
The following were added to the article on overtime:
When the Company deems a mandatory 10 hour shift and cancels or reduces the mandatory 10 hour shift after 8:00 a.m. on the working day prior to the scheduled mandatory 10 hour shift each effected employee will receive 2 hours at the applicable rate of pay.
If the Company is looking for employees to voluntarily leave after the 8th hour of a mandatory 10-hour shift and the employee accepts then the 2 hours at the applicable rate of pay does not apply.
If after the mandatory 10 hour is cancelled and the company requires employees to continue to work after eight 8 hours, article 6.01 applies.
If the cancellation is the result of emergencies beyond the control of the company such as fire, storm, power failure, labor dispute at the plant, or other forces of nature 2 hours at the applicable rate of pay will not apply.
When the Company deems a mandatory overtime Saturday, and cancels after 8:00 a.m. on the Friday before the mandatory Saturday shift, the cancellation counts towards the allotted number of mandatory Saturdays in the month unless the cancellation is the result of emergencies beyond the control of the Company such as fire, storm, power failure, a labour dispute at the plant, or other forces of nature.
The new collective agreement introduced a new lead hand premium, which will be $2.00 per hour for all hours worked by those in lead hand positions.
Also in the new in the collective agreement is that afternoon and night shift premiums won’t be compounded in overtime calculations. This restriction didn’t exist in the previous contract.
Regarding general holidays, the previous contract stated that “Effective January 1, 2023, Christmas Eve will be removed and replaced with The National Day for Truth and Reconciliation on September 30th”. However, the list of general holidays in the new contract still includes Christmas Eve, and National Day for Truth and Reconciliation is nowhere in sight.
On a related not, the following was removed from the collective agreement:
Effective 2023, work performed on December 24th will be paid at the regular hourly rate and will be limited to a maximum of 2 4-hour shifts or 1 6-hour shift. Start time of the shift(s) will be 6:00 a.m. (and 10:00 a.m., if a second shift is required).
The following clause from the previous contract:
When employees with 20 years of service or more is unable to work to the production standard for the job they are currently employed in, the Company will endeavour to re-train this employee in another job.
has been changed to this:
When an employee hired before January 1, 2013 is unable to work to the production standard for the job they are currently employed in, the Company will endeavour to re-train this employee in another job.
In the previous contract, a worker who has a dispute with the company was supposed to meet with their immediate supervisor within 5 days of knowing about the incident. That has been increased to 10 days in the new contract.
The supervisor then had 2 days to respond to the discussion within 2 days. That has been increased to another 10 days.
In step 2 of the grievance procedure, the operations manager had 5 days after receiving the grievance to notify the steward or other union rep with their decision. This, too, has been increased to 10 days.
Same goes for the human resources manager in step 3 of the process: 5 days limit has been doubled to 10 days.
The boot allowance has changed from $240 every 2 years to $125 every year, which is a combined $250 over 2 years.
Workers will cover 100% of the applicable premium for long-term disability coverage. The previous contract didn’t indicate who covered premiums.
As well, workers will get 8 hours off with pay for sick leave each calendar year. There was no sick leave listed in the previous agreement. Workers can’t take sick leave time of less than 4 hours at a time, and sick time can’t be accumulated or carried over into the next year, nor will it be paid out at the end of the year.
If the company plans to close or transfer their manufacturing operations, they must give the union 90 days notice. In the previous contract, this was 6 months notice.
The deductible on prescription coverage has dropped from $7 per prescription to just $1 per prescription.
One reply on “Calgary mattress workers get 55% raise in new contract”
[…] that’s weird, since Calgary factory workers got a 55% raise in their most recent collective agreement, which settled just this past January. And last […]