Last week, the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees published two updates (here and here) on their website regarding contract negotiations for Edmonton continuing care workers.
These workers are employed at two retirement facilities.
The first is Our Parents’ Home, a high-rise retirement facility near downtown Edmonton. It has 84 independent living suites, 17 supportive living suites, and 33 memory care suites.
The building was opened in 2015 by the Jewish Federation of Edmonton, who sold it to Revera Retirement LP in 2020.
Just 3 years later, Revera announced it was getting out of the retirement home management business and focusing its business on just the ownership and acquisition of such properties. They passed the management on to Cogir Real Estate, based out of Montréal.
The second facility is McConachie Gardens, which contains 160 units spread out over 4 floors, including 104 independent living suites, 28 assisted living suites, and 28 memory care suites. It opened in 2019.
Like Our Parents’ Home, this facility is owned by Revera but they contract out operations to Cogir.
The workers at both facilities include active living aides, environmental services assistants, health care aides, licensed practical nurses, cooks, dietary aides, dishwashers, housekeeping aides, laundry aides, and receptionists.
AUPE has represented workers at McConachie Gardens since October 2020 and those at Our Parents’ Home since May 2021.
Collective agreements for both sets of workers expired at the end of 2023, so these workers have been without new contracts for over a year and a half. And even then, those contracts were not ratified until August of 2023, just 4 months before they expired.
Plus, the first collective agreements for both groups had to go to arbitration, which itself took several months. So it should come as no surprise to anyone that these workers still have no new contract, even as they approach two full years without one.
In the two updates, the bargaining teams for both sets of workers have presented small increases in wages over a 4-year contract:
| 1 January 2024 | 1.50% |
| 1 January 2025 | 1.50% |
| 1 January 2026 | 1.25% |
| 1 January 2027 | 1.25% |
That is a combined 5.5%, or 5.61% if we account for compounding increases. This works out to be 1.38% (1.40%) per year, on average.
Here is how much each group received in their last contracts.
| McConachie Gardens | Our Parents’ Home | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 January 2021 | 1.75% | n/a |
| 1 January 2022 | 1.75% | 1.75% |
| 1 January 2023 | 1.25% | 1.25% |
That is 4.75% and 3.00% respectively, with an annual average increase of 1.58% and 1.50%.
And while two increases of 1.5% and two of 1.25% seem to be pretty inline with what the workers received in the previous contracts—although with a slightly lower annual increases—we have to ask ourselves whether the previous increases were sufficient in the first place.
For example, the consumer price index in Alberta increased by 10.92% during the length of the McConachie Gardens contract and 10.80% during the contract for Our Parents’ Home.
This means that by the end of their contracts, these workers saw a cut to real wages of 6.17% and 7.80% respectively.
An increase of 5.5% will fall short of making up for either of these real wage cuts. And remember, that 5.5% is spread out over 4 years, during which time, inflation most assuredly will increase, which will increase the real wage gap even further.
For example, inflation between January 2023 (their last raises) and January 2025 in Alberta increased by 5.98%. Their proposed combined increase will not even cover inflation for the first two years of the new collective agreement, let alone the final two years and the lost wages in their last contract.
They should have offered a raise of 6.17% and 7.80% in the first year to cover lost wages, with and additional 3.5% on both contracts for inflation in that same year, followed by 2.5% in their second year to cover inflation in the next year. The final two increases could then be based on inflation predictions.
Given how inadequate these increases are, the workers bargaining teams have responded with aggressive offers.
| 1 January 2024 | 3.00% |
| 1 January 2025 | 3.00% |
| 1 January 2026 | 3.00% |
| 1 January 2027 | 3.00% |
This was the same proposal for both contracts.
A combined increase of 12% would cover the cuts of 6.17% and 7.80% from the previous contracts, leaving 5.83% and 4.2% to cover inflation over the course of the new contracts.
Clearly, given the size of the real wage cuts, even these larger proposals will be inadequate, but you would think that would be a reason for the employers to accept them.
Keep in mind, however, that the workers have also asked for a minimum wage of $20.85 an hour. Some of the workers were making under $17 an hour by the time their last contracts expired. As a result, some of the workers would see even more than 3% in their first year, if this proposal was implemented.
If this minimum wage was implemented, workers in 5 job classifications at McConachie Gardens would get an immediate raise and workers in 3 classifications at Our Parents’ Home would get a paybump. Plus starting wages in 3 additional job classifications at Our Parents’ Home would get a bump.
And that is not all. The workers are also demanding 4% increase between steps in the wage grid.
For example, when a housekeeping aide at either workplace has worked 250 hours, they advance from the starting wage to the step 1 wage in the grid, which comes with a pay increase. They want enlarge how much that step increases by.
The bargaining teams for the workers have also proposed increasing the uniform allowance.
In their updates, these bargaining teams have also claimed that the workers are being shorted on stat holiday pay.
In addition, they want vacation pay to include overtime and other paid hours. The current practice seems to include only regularly scheduled shifts when calculating vacation pay.
Finally, they are also asking for equity in shift differentials across classifications and worksites in Edmonton managed by the same employer, as well as improvements to leaves and benefits.
The bargaining teams will not be meeting with the employer until the final week of October to resume contract negotiations.
