Last month, the Mediation Services department of Alberta Jobs, Economy, and Trade published the November 2024 Bargaining Update.
This monthly report provides information about the unionized workforce, primarily in Alberta. In November, Mediation Services received settlement information regarding 20 private sector and 11 public sector bargaining settlements, covering 2,841 and 4,096 workers respectively.
Among those settlements was a contract for 13 workers employed by CBN Commercial Solutions. These workers are represented by Local 191 of Unifor.
Based out of Calgary, CBN Commercial Solutions provides integrated solutions in marketing, print, direct mail, and digital marketing for their commercial clients.
This contract specifically applies to workers employed in the offset printing and the bindery departments at CBN.
The previous contract for these workers expired 15 November 2023. The new contract was settled just 4 days later; although Mediation Services only recently received a copy.
These workers are set to get wage increases in each year of the new 3-year contract, which expires in April 2027.
| 16 November 2023 | 3.00% |
| 16 November 2024 | 2.50% |
| 16 November 2025 | 2.50% |
This works out to a combined wage of 8% over the the life of the contract—or 8.21% if you account for compounding increases—averaging out to 2.67% (2.74%) per year.
It’s better than the 1.5% they got in each year of their last contract.
| 16 November 2018 | 1.50% |
| 16 November 2019 | 1.50% |
| 16 November 2020 | 1.50% |
| 16 November 2021 | 1.50% |
| 16 November 2022 | 1.50% |
Inflation in Alberta between November 2017 and November 2022 increased by 16.76%.
During that same period, wages increased only 7.5%, leaving a cut to real wages of 9.26%. That means that the 8% in this new contract won’t be enough to make up for the loss in real wages—they’ll still be more than 1% short. Plus, that’s not even counting the inflation over the life of this new contract.
I mean, inflation between November 2022 and November 2024 was just over 5.32%, so we’re already past 6%, with a little less than 2 more years to go.
It’s great that their increase was higher, but they’re still behind inflation.
Here are some changes between the previous contract and the new contract.
In the old collective agreement, workers had to get security clearance to be employed in CBN’s offset and bindery operations. The new agreement updates that to specify the security clearance must be Government of Canada Secret Level II clearance. As well, workers must now maintain that security clearance, whereas before they need to have it only at the time of hire.
There were 4 types of apprentices listed in the previous collective agreement: litho pressmen, press helpers, press feeders, and offset machine operators. Now, the list is down to just 2: litho press operators and press feeders.
New to the contract is an afternoon shift, which runs from 13:00 to 22:00 on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays and from 13:00 to 21:00 on Thursdays.
Under the previous contract, worker who are called back to work after completing their shift would receive a $10 call-back allowance plus overtime pay for each new hour worked. This has been changed in the new contract to a minimum of 4 hours pay but at 1.5 times the base pay rate.
CBN used to provide a $300 uniform allowance. As of the new contract, however, they will simply provide the work uniforms—which include 1 sweatshirt and 5 T-shirts—to each worker.
Workers will now get 2 days of sick leave, whereas they got none in their last contract.
Should a full-time worker go on short-term disability, the employer has agreed in the new contract to provide the workers with the payment of their wages during the 7-day waiting period.
Bereavement leave has been changed from 4 days of paid leave to 1 work week of paid leave for spouse, children, parent, or sibling. Workers will get just 3 days for parents-in-law, grandchildren, and children-in-law. Finally, they will get just 1 day for siblings-in-law, grandparents-in-law, grandchildren-in-law, and niblings.
Pay in lieu of notice has changed in the new contract. Previously, it didn’t apply to workers who were terminated for just cause, but not retired workers are excluded as well. In addition, pay in lieu of notice for those who were laid off was based on “the entitlements as outlined under the Employment Standards Code of Alberta”. Now, it’s 35 hours worth of pay for each year of employment, but to a maximum of 26 weeks (or 6 months).
