Last week, the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees published an update on their website for workers employed by Canterbury Foundation.
Founded in 1974, Canterbury Foundations is a not-for-profit organization that oversees the operation of a licensed seniors’ care community in Edmonton.
AUPE represents about 150 workers at the facility working in a wide variety of positions, including servers, dishwashers, housekeepers, custodians, drivers, receptionists, health care aides, cooks, clerks, activity coordinators, licensed practical nurses, registered nurses, and those working in maintenance and the beauty salon.
Their most recent collective agreement expired nearly 3 years ago, at the end of 2023. That agreement took over 2.5 years after the previous one expired before it was negotiated and ratified.
Despite it being so long since this most recent agreement expired, the employer did not table a monetary offer until this past April, even though they had promised to bring one to the bargaining session last November.
Their initial offer was pathetic.
| 1 January 2024 | 0.00% |
| 1 January 2025 | 0.00% |
| 1 January 2026 | 1.00% |
| 1 January 2027 | 1.50% |
But even then the increases in 2026 and 2027 would be for only certain job classifications, not across the board, so most workers would have ended up with 3 years of wage freezes.
Needless to say, the bargaining team that the workers had elected ended up rejecting that offer.
When the two parties met again this past July, Canterbury Foundation proposed slight increases to their initial offer.
| 1 January 2024 | 1.00% |
| 1 January 2025 | 1.00% |
| 1 January 2026 | 2.00% |
| Date of ratification | 2.00% |
| 1 January 2027 | Wage reopener |
Clearly, this is barely an improvement, and the workers’ bargaining team thought as much, so they applied for informal mediation, which began last month.
Canterbury came to mediation with a new offer.
They are back to wage freezes in 2024 and 2025.
As well, the 2026 wage increase would not kick in until ratification, rather be retroactive to this past January, and that increase would not be across the board. Rather, it would vary by position.
Finally, they proposed a 1.5% wage increase for everyone in 2027.
To make up for the wage freezes in the first 2 years, they have offered a one-time increase of $500.
Now, $500 is better than nothing, but it does not increase base salary.
For example, if someone was making $40,000 at the end of their last contract, they would still get $40,000 plus $500. However, when their 2026 wage increase kicks in, it would be based on $40,000, not $40,500.
Lump sum payments look promising, but they hurt workers in the long run.
Here are the wage increases these workers received in their last 2 contracts.
| 1 January 2018 | 1.50% |
| 1 January 2019 | 1.00% |
| 1 January 2020 | 1.00% |
| 1 January 2021 | 0.00% |
| 1 January 2022 | 1.00% |
| 1 January 2023 | 2.00% |
| 6.50% |
Between January 2017 and January 2023, the consumer price index in Alberta increased by 23.5 points, from 137.0 points to 160.5 points. That is a jump of 17.15%.
Because inflation increased by over 17% during a time wages increased by only 6.5%, these workers has a cut to real wages of 10.65% by the time they got their last wage increase.
They were proposing nothing even close to that, never mind the fact that inflation has continued to increase since January 2023. It has increased by another 11.65%, which has more than doubled their lost real wages.
Even the 12% over 4 years that most other public sector workers in Alberta have been getting in their new contracts would still not be enough to make up for real wages that are more than 20 percentage behind inflation.
Here are some of the other proposals Canterbury has put on the table to make the -21% in wages more palatable.
They offered to increase reimburses for registered nurse professional fees from the current $250 per year to $504 per year. Licensed practical nurses would, I assume, remain at $250.
They also offered to reimburse health care aides for 50% of their annual professional registration, but only to a max of $300. They offer no reimbursement at the moment.
An additional 1% wage increase would go to workers who have been with the organization for over 20 years.
The two parties are scheduled to come together next month for more mediation. Hopefully, the employer cleans up their act and proposes increases that show respect for the work their workers perform.
