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 about 60 education maintenance and custodial workers employed by the Wild Rose School Division.
These workers are represented by Local 955 of the International Union of Operating Engineers.
Based out of the community of Rocky Mountain House, Wild Rose School Division oversees schools in Breton, Caroline, Condor, Drayton Valley, Leslieville, and Rocky Mountain House.
Their previous contract expired 31 August 2024. The new contract was settled 3 days before.
These workers are set to get wage increases in each year of the new 4-year contract, which expires in August 2028.
| 1 September 2024 | 3.00% |
| 1 September 2025 | 3.00% |
| 1 September 2026 | 2.00% |
| 1 September 2027 | 2.00% |
This works out to a combined wage of 10% over the the life of the contract—or 10.38% if you account for compounding increases—averaging out to 2.50% (2.59%) per year.
These raises are identical to those ratified by education support workers in the same school district at the same time.
It’s also much better than the 2.75% they got in their last contract.
| 1 September 2020 | 0.00% |
| 1 September 2021 | 0.00% |
| 1 September 2022 | 0.00% |
| 1 June 2023 | 1.25% |
| 1 February 2024 | 1.50% |
Clearly, 3 years of wage freezes means these workers have seen their real wages—wages adjusted for inflation—drop during this time.
Inflation between September 2019 and September 2023 increased by 16.17%.
During that same period, wages increased only 1.25%, leaving a cut to real wages of 14.92%. That means that the 1.5% this past February and the 10% in this new contract won’t be enough to make up for the loss in real wages—they’ll still be nearly 3.5% short. Plus, that’s not even counting the inflation over the life of this new contract.
I mean, inflation between September 2023 and September 2024 was just shy of 2%, so we’re already back up to almost 6%, with 3 more years to go.
On the plus side, it didn’t take two years to settle this contract (unlike the previous contract), and 10% is better than the 7.5% being offered to a bunch of other public sector workers (see here, here, here, here, here, and here).
Here are some changes between the previous contract and the new contract.
Under the previous agreement, these workers could bank overtime hours as time off instead of being paid for them. This is still the case in the new contract, but now it’s restricted to a maximum of 40 hours in a fiscal year. And if the worker doesn’t take the time off by 31 August, it’ll be paid out.
Workers were entitled to sick leave under their old agreement, but it was restricted to their own use. The new agreement allows them to use up to 5 days of their sick leave for medical appointments or treatments for their spouse or child.
