Last week, the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees published an update on their website regarding negotiations on behalf of Edmonton care workers.
The workers are employed at Wescott Retirement Residence, which is operated by Chartwell Master Care LP. They actually unionized only two years ago, in April 2022.
These workers include kitchen staff, health care aides, licensed practical nurses, maintenance workers, receptionists, activity aides, and housekeepers.
Their first collective agreement was only a two-year agreement, expiring this past March, just 3 months after being ratified. It took so long to negotiate because the employer refused to concede to the wage demands of the workers, and the contract ended up going to arbitration.
Bargaining with Chartwell for the new contract began last month, when the two parties met on the 5th and 6th of September. The two parties met again this month on the 15th, during which time, Chartwell finally proposed wage adjustments.
It’s not unusual for employers to propose wage increases after they get most, if not all, of the non-monetary proposals out of the way.
Chartwell has proposed moving to a 3-year contract—the previous contract was for just 2 years—with 4.25% over the life of the contract.
| 2024 | 1.25% |
| 2025 | 1.50% |
| 2026 | 1.50% |
That comes to an average of 1.42% per year.
Their previous contract was 3.75% over two years, with an annual average of 1.88%.
So, the overall increase is more this year, but because it’s spread out over an extra year, the annual average is significantly lower.
But that’s not all.
In April 2021, the consumer price index in Alberta was 147.7 but had risen 3 years later to 168.6, an increase of 20.9 points. That’s a jump of 14.15%.
When you put that together with the 3.75% wage increase the workers received in their last contract, they ended up with a cut to real wages—wages adjusted for inflation—of 10.4% heading into this new round of bargaining.
Chartwell’s proposal 4.25% isn’t even half of what is needed to address this reduction in real wages. And that’s not even addressing the inflation this year, next year, and in 2026.
No wonder the workers’ negotiation team called this wage proposal “unacceptable”.
A 4.25% wage increase over three years does not come close to addressing the cost-of-living challenges we face. We simply cannot accept a wage proposal which leaves us further behind during a time of rising inflation.
Not only did Chartwell propose pathetic wage increases, they rejected other proposals put forward by the workers’ negotiating team.
- Reimbursement for CLPNA registration up to $350 for LPNs working 0.4 FTE or higher
- Allow for two weekends off in a four-week period
- Increase the rate of overtime from 1.5✕ to 2✕ the basic rate of pay
- Add National Day of Truth and Reconciliation as a named holiday
- Increase named holiday pay to double-time
- Improved rate of vacation earned for each year worked
- Increase the rate of sick leave accrual from 3.75 hours to 7.5 hours every 162.5 hours worked
- Full reimbursement of the cost of medical certificates
- 3 days of personal leave each year to attend to personal matters
- Same shift differentials and weekend premiums for all classifications, with improvements
- Eligible employees to receive both shift differential and weekend premium
- Voluntary RRSP program with an employer match of up to 4% of the employee’s contribution
No further bargaining dates have been set, but it’s clear that things probably won’t be resolved soon.
Chartwell seems intent on following a path similar to the last time, hoping that arbitration will force a crappy wage increase onto these workers so they won’t have to be the bad guys.
Hopefully these workers won’t need to wait until 2026 to get their new contract.
