Coaldale workers reject forced vote

Last month, I wrote an article about municipal workers employed with the Town of Coaldale.

Their most recent collective agreement expired at the end of 2024. They have been trying to negotiate a new one since last December, but the Town of Coaldale has been dragging their feet on negotiations.

These workers have seen their real wages reduced by more than 12% over their last 3 contracts, yet the Town of Coaldale has offered them just a combined 7.5% raise over 3 years for their next contract.

Not only will that not cover their lost wages, it will not cover inflation during the life of this new contract, whenever it is finally ratified.

According to the bargaining committee for these workers, the Town of Coaldale has a top-heavy hierarchy, with roughly the same number of managers as nearby Lethbridge who oversee a workforce less than 5% the size of that which the Lethbridge bosses manage.

The two parties went to mediation in May, but the bargaining committee claims the Town of Coaldale “refused to budge on their positions”“refused to move from their unacceptable positions”.

To make matters worse, the Town of Coaldale got the Alberta Labour Relations Board to force the workers to vote on their latest offer, just like Canada Post did to their workers. In both cases, these were offers from the employer the workers had to vote on, not negotiated agreements.

The Town of Coaldale began emailing workers about their offer, which undermines the collective bargaining process.

Workers democratically elected their bargaining committee, and they presented the committee with the priorities they wanted the committee to focus on. By emailing the workers, the Town of Coaldale is ignoring the democratic will of the workers.

In an update published to their website earlier this week, the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees (which represents these workers) said that the workers voted “overwhelmingly” to reject the Town of Coaldale’s offer.

These workers “knew that the offer came nowhere close to meeting their needs,” says Curtis Jackson, one of AUPE’s vicepresidents. “With this vote, they have sent a strong message to their employer. These AUPE members won’t stand for the employer’s tactics and are prepared to fight for a fair deal at the bargaining table.”

Hopefully, the Town of Coaldale will get back to negotiations and finally bargain in good faith so that these workers can support themselves and their families in times whenever nearly everyone is getting squeezed financially.