Earlier today, Nate Horner, the provincial finance minister issued a statement regarding contract negotiations between the Government of Alberta and the 22,000 or so workers they directly employ.
These workers have been without a new contract for over a year, since their last collective agreement expired in March 2024. They started bargaining last February.
But it shouldn’t be that surprising that it’s taking so long to reach an agreement. The last contract wasn’t settled until December 2021, more than a year and a half after the previous one had expired.
Anyhow, I wanted to go through Horner’s statement and clarify a few things, given that he’s providing a one-sided perspective on negotiations, leaving out a lot.
Alberta’s government values and appreciates the hard work of its 22,000 employees who are members of the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees (AUPE).
If that were true, you wouldn’t have opened negotiations with an initial wage offer of 7.5% over 4 years after giving them two years of wage freezes followed by just 2.75%, on top of the two wage freezes they got under the NDP.
Unfortunately, union leadership has not been forthright with its members and sold the idea that a successful strike vote would provide more leverage at the bargaining table. Union leadership broke off negotiations and asked the mediator to withdraw from the process, despite government negotiators indicating there was room to move.
Room to move? You’ve offered them an additional 1 percentage point per year.
The government’s previous offer to the union included general wage increases of about 12 per cent over four years for all employees, along with market-adjustment salary increases for occupations facing recruitment and retention issues.
“About 12%” is an interesting way to describe 11.5%.
The workers proposed 26% over 4 years, with 13% in the first year to make up for the lost wages over the 4 years of wage freezes and below-inflation increases. You’re offering them less over 4 years than they are requesting in just their first year.
This is the same general wage increase that nearly 60 other Alberta public sector bargaining groups have recently settled for.
Ha!
That’s because your Provincial Bargaining and Compensation Office has forced that wage increase on all those public sector bargaining groups, taking away the right of those workers to negotiate with their employers.
Oh, and by the way, those workers got 12% over 4 years. You’re offering these workers less than that: 11.5%.
AUPE is demanding a 29 per cent wage increase over four years.
I love how the government “offers” but the union “demands”. And it’s funny how the union is always painted as the bad guy, even though the bargaining team is made up of workers the government employs and the bargaining team received input from the workers on what to prioritize in bargaining. This is what the workers want.
There is no evidence of a wage settlement that large for any group of workers in Alberta, or in Canada.
Well, that’s weird, since Calgary factory workers got a 55% raise in their most recent collective agreement, which settled just this past January. And last September, Edmonton warehouse workers won a 29% raise.
If government met AUPE’s demands and then extended those increases to all other public sector employees, the cumulative increase would cost taxpayers about $23 billion over four years. That’s about the same amount of money that’s in the Heritage Savings Trust Fund, or two years of funding for kindergarten to Grade 12 education.
How much money will the income tax cut cost taxpayers over 4 years? How much money does a sales tax of 0% cost taxpayers every year? How much money does the lowest corporate profit tax in the country cost taxpayers every year?
Related to that, when you restrict the incomes of workers, you restrict how much money they can spend in the economy. That restricts demand, which, in turn, restricts job creation. Maybe that’s why we have the 4th highest unemployment rate in the country.
If AUPE leadership continues to be unreasonable and unrealistic, the situation could escalate to a strike by government workers or a government-initiated lockout. Neither option is desirable. I encourage AUPE leadership to come back to the table with realistic aspirations.
A realistic aspiration is wages that make up for years of crappy increases and punitive wage freezes.
8 replies on “Correcting Nate Horner’s criticism of AUPE”
I’d also venture to say that the math doesn’t add up. 23 billion over 4 years? That’s an average of about 1 million per employee. I’d laugh if it wasn’t so stupid.
That’s only if it’s for these workers. He’s talking about if they extend the ask to all public sector workers.
So there are approximately 249,000 employees that report to the goverment of alberta. The 23 billion price tag they are claiming is $92,000 over 4 years or $23,000/year.
The average goverment employee makes closer to $60,000/year and would only result in a $3600/year increase @6%/year which is the everlasting of 24% over 4 year, but even at the top end of managers and executives and $147,000/year salary(and this is a very very small percentage of goverment employees) that is only $8820.00/year which is 60% less than that claim. And that is if everyone made that in GOA and I can assure you they do not.oh math is fun and this projection is BS.
So there are approximately 249,000 employees that report to the goverment of alberta. The 23 billion price tag they are claiming is $92,000 over 4 years or $23,000/year.
The average goverment employee makes closer to $60,000/year and would only result in a $3600/year increase @6%/year which is the everlasting of 24% over 4 year, but even at the top end of managers and executives and $147,000/year salary(and this is a very very small percentage of goverment employees) that is only $8820.00/year which is 60% less than that claim. And that is if everyone made that in GOA and I can assure you they do not.oh math is fun and this projection is BS.
Very typical GOA positioning, particularly by this government. Somehow they value our work, but yet can’t be bothered to pay us decently. There are some fellow workers in my area I know who realized that if we went on strike, they’d get pretty much equivalent wages from strike pay as they would from their jobs at the GOA. When that is possible, the employer has definitely not been paying decent wages. And they try guilt (“you do such good work for all Albertans and citizens need services”) and fear (“if you go on strike you won’t get paid”) and then union-busting (“if you come to work and cross the line, you’ll get your regular wage and we won’t remit your union dues to the union”).
I for one as an employee for GoA in the bargaining unit do not agree with the unions push to strike and in fact am very annoyed by it. I most certainly would not make more in strike pay then my salary working and would gladly take what is offered as it has no effect on me but I’m being forced by this union to agree as my voice doesn’t matter since they say what will get the results they want..
That’s great you make more salary than you would on strike pay but that’s not the same for a lot of others. I also know of employees who need to work at another place on weekends to make ends met. The union is trying to make everyone have a fair wage to survive in this high cost of living economy and if the government gave fair wage increases during previous negotiations we wouldn’t be in this situation.
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