Last month, the Mediation Services department of Alberta Jobs, Economy, and Trade published the December 2024 Bargaining Update.
This monthly report provides information about the unionized workforce, primarily in Alberta. In December, Mediation Services received settlement information regarding 24 private sector and 10 public sector bargaining settlements, covering 2,429 and 3,797 workers respectively.
Among those settlements was a contract for about 90 workers employed by the CANA Services. Technically, it was actually 2 contracts.
The first collective agreement was for about 75 construction carpenters, and the second was for about 15 labourers who work in construction carpentry.
Both sets of workers are represented by the CANA Services Employees’ Association.
CANA services is a child company of CANA Group of Companies, which is based in Calgary and provides a variety of commercial construction services.
These workers include all construction carpenters employed by CANA, other than those employed as managers, supervisors, or professionals, or working in a confidential positions.
The previous contracts (here and here) for both sets of workers expired in June 2024. The new contracts were settled in May 2024, before the old ones expired.
According to the bargaining update, these workers will receive wage increases in at least the first year of their new 2.5-year contract, but it’s up in the air whether they will get one in the second year.
The contracts state that the CANA will review the Alberta market and wages every 6 months over the next two years and adjust wages as needed, so it’s possible that wages will increase this year. But they could also decrease, depending on how the market performs.
The 2024 increase ranged from 8.86% for the top bracket of labourers to 11.14% for overseas carpenters.
By comparison, wages in the previous contract ranged from 4.86% for leadhand carpenters to 10% for the top bracket of labourers; although 4-year apprentices and the equipment operators had wage freezes in the last contract.
Here are some highlights of other changes in the contracts.
New to the collective agreement is an on-call premium. Workers who are on call after hours, including evenings, weekends, and holidays, will be paid a 2-hour premium, based on their regular pay rate. It won’t couont toward overtime accumulation or hours and won’t be eligible for RRSP matching or be eligible for dues deduction.
The benefits plan has switched from the Merit Contractors Association Hour Bank Benefit Plan to the Open Circle Hour Bank Benefit Plan.
Workers can participate in the group RRSP after they’ve been with the company for 90 days. Previously, it was 12 months.
Related to that, workers employed with CANA Services will qualify for a maximum 3% matching contribution to the RRSP plan if they’ve been with the company for between 3 and 12 months. Previously, they had to be with the company for 5 years.
As well, anyone with the company after a year gets a maximum 5% matching contribution, which they had to wait 9 years for under the previous contract.
Under the previous agreement, workers for a $200 allowance for personal protective equipment every two years. This has been cut in half but is now an annual allowance. As well, it’s been changed to just boots.
The new contract introduced an optional split-banking arrangement, which will allow workers to have the employer deposit a portion of the worker’s paycheque into a second bank account. Workers could, for example, use this other bank account to deposit all their vacation pay into, which they could then use when taking time off.
Workers are entitled to mileage when traveling to work at a site that is outside a free zone. Previously, it had been an 80-kilometre zone centred around the Calgary Tower. That zone has been reduced to 50 kilometres, which increases the chances of getting mileage, as well as how much mileage is claimable.
