Last week, the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees posted an update on their website regarding contract negotiations for workers employed at Points West Living Drayton Valley.
This 50-unit continuing care facility is operated by Connecting Care Foundation, which is based out of Edmonton.
The 4 dozen or so workers employed here include licensed practical nurses, health care aides, hospitality aides recreation aides, care aides, kitchen workers, and maintenance workers.
They unionized with AUPE AUPE in 2023, so this will be their first collective agreement, even though it has been over 2 years since they unionized.
Part of the problem was that the employer was engaging in unionbusting activities, including suspending one of the members of the bargaining team, which the workers democratically selected.
The bargaining committee gathered feedback during the summer of 2023 from the Drayton Valley workers on which issues were most important to the during this bargaining process.
Negotiations began that September and by October, the bargaining teams for the employer and the workers had signed off on most of the non-monetary items and were getting ready to start discussing monetary items, such as wages, shift premiums, and overtime when the worker was suspended.
In January 2024, the bargaining team filed a bad-faith bargaining complaint with the Alberta Labour Relations Board after the employer tabled a tiny 2.5% wage increase over two years and refusing to respond the multiple disclosure requests from the bargaining team.
PWL Drayton Valley came back over a year later with another wage proposal: making it a 3-yer contract, keeping the 2.5% but adding in 1.75% at the start of the contract.
Plus, the employer went through 4 negotiators during the year-and-a-half-long negotiations, which included mediation that did not begin until this past July.
So what did the mediator recommend?
Well, for starters, the contract is only a few months long, running from 11 January 2023 to 31 December 2023. That means even if the workers ratify it, it will have already expired by more than a year and a half, and they will still have to negotiate for another collective agreement.
The new agreement includes a wage increase of 1.75%, which is exactly what the employer offered earlier this year for the first wage increase.
It also includes changes to health benefits:
- Basic dental coverage increases from 70% to 80%.
- Addition of 50% major dental coverage, with a maximum of $2500/year.
- Prescription coverage increases from 70% to 80%.
- Practitioner coverage (ex. massage, chiro) changes from $300 per practitioner to $1000 combined for all practitioners.
As well health benefit premium will increase, with the employer covering half of the costs:
| Old | New | |
|---|---|---|
| Single | $17.68 | $24.01 |
| Family | $35.69 | $48.63 |
The health spending account will increase from $300 tp $400, which is what the employer had proposed. However, the employer owes workers a $100 lump sum payment for every year they worked in 2023, 2024, and 2025.
Shift differentials and premiums also received increases:
| Old | Jan 2023 | Dec 2023 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Evening | $2.50 | $2.75 | $3.00 |
| Night | $3.00 | $3.30 | $4.00 |
| Weekend | $2.00 | $2.20 | $3.00 |
Voting on the tentative agreement begins today and runs until the 10th. Workers eligible to vote should have received an online ballot over email.
