At the end of last month, the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees published an update on their website regarding contract negotiations for Edmonton long-term care workers.
AUPE represents nearly 200 workers employed by Park Place Seniors Living at their Hardisty Seniors Community facility in northwest Edmonton.
Based out of Vancouver, Park Place owns over 30 residences and homes for seniors is British Columbia, Alberta, and Ontario.
Technically, these workers are employed by Hardisty Care Centre Partnership, which is a business partnership between Hardisty Nursing Home Inc. and Park Place Seniors Living Inc.
They include licensed practical nurses, health care aides, janitors, recreation aides, rehabilitation assistants, clerks, and workers in laundry, housekeeping, maintenance, and food services.
Their most recent collect agreement expired in March 2024, over 2.5 years ago.
The workers’ bargaining team met with the employer’s representatives in 2024 toe negotiate the replacement agreement. The two parties began discussing monetary issues (such as wages and benefits) in August 2024.
Park Place offered a 4-year contract initially, with a 2% wage increase every year.
| 2024 | 2.00% |
| 2025 | 2.00% |
| 2026 | 2.00% |
| 2027 | 2.00% |
| 8.00% |
Here is what they got in their collective agreement prior to this one:
| 1 April 2020 | 0.00% |
| 1 April 2021 | 0.75% |
| 1 April 2022 | 0.75% |
| 1 April 2023 | 0.75% |
| 1 October 2023 | 0.45% |
| 2.70% |
By comparison, the consumer price index in Alberta rose from 143.7 points in April 2019 to 165.2 points in October 2023. That is an increase of 21.5 points, or 14.96%.
Because these workers got a 2.7% wage increase during a period where inflation hit basically 15%, these workers were left with a cut to real wages of 12.26%.
A wage increase of 8% falls short of making up for lost wages of over 12%. And that is not even accounting for inflation during the new agreement.
For example, inflation has already passed 8% since these workers received their last wage increase in October 2023.
After the two parties met in August 2024, they planned to head to mediation to help negotiate the new agreement.
Negotiations ended up paused in 2024 as the two parties waited to see what AUPE members in similar positions with Alberta Health Services would receive, as that might affect offers from both parties.
The two parties had reached a tentative agreement this past January. By this point, Park Place had increased their offer to 3% a year, for a combined 12%. This still falls short of covering lost real wages, but it is better than their initial offer.
In a new offer in April, they offered a 3.75% wage increase but only in the final year, which is a huge reversal.
Earlier this year, the provincial government increased funding for continuing care providers across Alberta. In an update this past July, AUPE announced that they were headed back to negotiations in October.
Which brings us back to the most recent update.
According to that update, the workers’ bargaining team offered at last month’s negotations 12% over 4 years, which is similar to what AHS workers received.
| 2024 | 3.00% |
| 2025 | 3.00% |
| 2026 | 3.00% |
| 2027 | 3.00% |
| 12.00% |
As I pointed out earlier, 12% is still not enough to make up for lost real wages, which is why the workers have also asked for market adjustments, including 10% for licensed practical nurses and 4% for health care aides.
They have also asked for a living wage of $22.65 per hour—the 2025 living wage in Edmonton was $22.30.
At the end of the most recent collective agreement, the starting wages for health care aides, housekeepers, laundry workers, janitors, food services workers, recreation aides, and unit clerks were are all under $20 an hour.
As well, licensed practical nurses, according to AUPE, are making $10.18 an hour less than LPNs with AHS, and health care aides are making $5.59 an hour less than their AHS peers. Wages for other workers range from 4.3% less for nursing administrators to 31% less for unit clerks.
On the other hand, Park Place has agreed to increase shift differentials.
| Current | Tentative | |
|---|---|---|
| Evening | $2.75 | $3.25 |
| Night | $3.50 | $4.25 |
| Weekend | $3.00 | $3.50 |
They also agreed to increase the health spending account from $250 to $400 and convert it into a felxible spending account.
Beyond that, they claim that the demands from the workers “exceed what they can currently provide”; however, they are waiting to hear more about increased governemtn funding. They were supposed to meet with Assisted Living Alberta on the 26th of last month.
Bargaining is set to resume on 14 December, and Park Place promise to repond to the workers’ offers by then.
