Last month, the Mediation Services department of Alberta Jobs, Economy, and Trade published the September–October 2024 Bargaining Update.
This monthly report provides information about the unionized workforce, primarily in Alberta. In the months of September and October, Mediation Services received settlement information regarding 36 private sector and 31 public sector bargaining settlements, covering 3,408 and 4,855 workers respectively.
Among those settlements was a contract for just about 30 firefighters employed by the Town of Canmore.
These workers are represented by Local 4705 of the International Association of Firefighters.
Their previous contract actually expired at the end of 2020, nearly 4 years ago. The new contract was settled back in August, more than 3.5 years after the previous one expired.
These workers will get wage increases in each year of their new 3-year contract.
| January 2021 | 3.00% |
| January 2022 | 3.00% |
| January 2023 | 3.00% |
This works out to a combined wage of 9% over the full 3 years, or 9.27% if you account for compounding increases. That averages out to, well, 3% (3.09%) per year.
This is better than what they got in their previous contract.
| January 2018 | 4.0% |
| January 2019 | 2.0% |
| January 2020 | 2.0% |
That 4% increase in 2018 came after a wage freeze, too. So, when we average it over 2017 and 2018, then the 2018 increase was only 2%.
Here are some highlights of other changes between the new contract and their previous contract.
The night shift differential will increase from 80¢ an hour to $1 an hour. This is a premium paid on top of the regular rate of pay and is for all hours worked between 18:00 one evening and 08:00 the following morning.
Vacation time is based on the number of hours a worker had accrued. In their first year, it was prorated. Under the previous contract, it was based on full-time employment, but that requirement was removed in the new contract.
Easter Monday was removed from the list of general holidays, which are the holidays that qualify for stat pay. It was replaced with National Truth & Reconciliation Day. This means that these workers will still get only 12 stat holidays.
Short-term disability was added to the list of health benefits in this new contract, and the Town of Canmore has agreed to pay 100% of the premium costs.
The supplemental unemployment benefit has been reduced. This benefit supplements workers who are un employment insurance. In the old contract, it applied to those on short-term medical leave, mandatory maternity leave, and family caregiving leave. The new contract lists just family caregiving leave.
Because it took almost 4 years to negotiate and ratify this 3-year agreement, it’s already expired. That means the bargaining team for these workers will have hardly any time to recover before having to start the process all over again.
Hopefully the Town of Canmore doesn’t take sooooo long this time to negotiate the next contract. Although this month already marks one year since this “new” one expired, so it’s not a good start.
