Earlier this month, Alberta Mediation Services released their bargaining update for November and December 2023. One of the updates in there was for workers in the Buffalo Trail Public School Division.
These 200 or so workers are in support roles in the 20 schools in the Wainwright and Vermillion regions. They include educational assistants, library workers, administrative assistants, clerks, maintenance workers, custodians, and technology workers.
They belong to Local 1606 of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, and their last contract expired in August 2022, nearly a year and a half ago.
The workers and the employer settled on the new 2-year contract on 29 November 2023, and it will expire in August of this year.
The full contract isn’t available, so I’m unable to report on all the changes that workers can expect to see, but the bargaining update did include salary increases.
In the first year of the contract, from August 2022 to August 2023, workers will see a wage freeze. For the second year, they’ll see a market adjustment, to bring them in line with those in comparable positions with other employers, and then as the contract closes this upcoming August, they can expect another 1.5% increase.
Keep in mind that in their previous contract, the workers ended up with 3 years of wage freezes.
