Coaldale workers still waiting on new contract

Last week, the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees published an update regarding contract negotiations with the Town of Coaldale.

The town employs about 40 municipal workers, including mechanics, technologists, arborists, IT workers, programme coordinators, finance officers, utilities operators, various clerks, equipment operators, caretakers, pool workers, and park operators.

These workers have been without a new contract for over 6 months, since the their previous contract expired at the end of 2024.

According to a December update, the bargaining committee for the workers—which includes a customer service specialist, an arborist, and an equipment operator—began negotiations with the Town of Coaldale in November.

At the first negotiations meeting, the workers had proposed a 26% wage increase over 3 years:

1 January 2025	13.0%
1 January 2026	6.5%
1 January 2027	6.5%

Plus, they wanted a cost-of-living adjustment in their first year, market adjustments for certain classifications of workers, and a 4-step wage grid for the first 4 years a worker is employed with the town.

Now, 26% might seems like a lot, but let’s review what wage increases have been like over the last few years.

1 January 2016	2.75%
1 January 2017	2.50%
1 January 2018	0.00%
1 January 2019	1.50%
1 January 2020	1.75%
1 January 2021	2.00%
1 January 2022	1.00%
1 January 2023	1.50%
1 January 2024	1.50%

That’s a combined 14.5%, which works out to 1.51% per year, on average.

Meanwhile, between January 2015 and January 2024, the consumer price index in Alberta increased 34.9 points, from 131.0 to 165.9. That’s a jump of 26.64%.

While their wages were increasing by 14.5%, inflation was increasing by 26.64%. This left these workers with a cut to real wages of 12.14%. An increase of 13% in the first year will barely cover this real wage cut and leave a little over 1% to cover inflation in 2024, which was 2.53%, bringing them back to below inflation.

Unsurprisingly, the Town of Coaldale didn’t accept the proposal from the workers, instead tabling a much smaller increase over 3 years:

1 January 2025	2.5%
1 January 2026	2.5%
1 January 2027	2.5%

That’s just 7.5% over 3 years. That’s better than they’ve had in a long time, but it’s a third of what the workers asked for and not nearly enough to cover the 12.14 cut to real wages.

During negotiations, the bargaining team for the Town of Coaldale, according to the union, said they were trying to find ways to save money elsewhere to reallocate it to other areas.

There seemed to be no suggestion that they had bother to explore reducing their management. The bargaining team for the workers claimed that the Town of Coaldale has two dozen managers and supervisors not represented by the AUPE overseeing the 40 or so workers who are represented by AUPE.

That’s basically 1 manager for every 2 workers.

Compare that to nearby Lethbridge, which has 4 more out-of-scope managers, who oversee a combined workforce of just shy of 900 workers.

This ridiculous top-heavy approach to staffing, according to the union, is because of an ongoing “friends and family hiring practice”.

By April, the two parties could not come together on a wage proposal they could agree on, so they agreed to formal mediation, beginning in May.

However, the mediation hasn’t made much of a difference over the last month and a half, with the workers’ bargaining committee in their latest update claiming that the employer “refuse[s] to move from their unacceptable positions”.

The Town of Coaldale is saying they’ve improved their proposal, but the workers’ bargaining committee claims it’s nothing but a shell game, rolling back their RRSP contribution to increase employer contributions from 75% to 100% for paid benefits.

Plus, the employer boasts that they’ve increased their pay offer to 8.5%, but the union says that figure includes, among other things, routine annual step increases, which are unchanged, so far, from the most recent collective agreement.

AUPE says that the employer’s actual offer would be only 5.63% in the first year, nowhere close to the 13% they’re asking for and quite short of the 12.14% real wage cut over the last decade.

On top of that, the employer has been emailing workers outside of the bargaining team about bargaining and wages. As such, the bargaining team has reported that they plan to file an unfair labour practice, saying that these actions undermine the bargaining process.

Meanwhile, these workers have gone over 6 months without a new collective agreement. They plan to hold a rally next week to bring attention to the employer dragging out the bargaining process and not coming to the table with serious proposals.

The rally will occur at the Civic Square Outdoor Rink on the 17th. It will run from 11:00 until 13:00.