Edmonton city workers file for strike vote

Earlier this week, the Alberta Labour Relations Board released their final new applications report for January 2024. In it were two applications for a board-supervised strike vote.

The applications were submitted on 24 and 25 January 2024 by Civic Service Union 52, on behalf of its members employed by the Edmonton Public Library and the City of Edmonton, which collectively represents over 5,800 workers.

Both groups of workers haven’t had a new contract since their previous one expired in December 2020, over 3 years ago. Even then, Edmonton Public Library workers didn’t get that contract until July 2021, after the contract had already expired! The other city workers settled their contract in August 2020, just 4 months before it expired.

Negotiations for both groups had hit a standstill and had even gone to mediation.

As far as wages go, here’s what the City of Edmonton was offering the workers.

Keep in mind that both groups of workers received wage freezes in 2018, 2019, and 2020. In fact, the last time these workers received a raise was in December 2017, which means they are still working off wages set over 6 years ago.

If we include those two years with no increases, then we see a combined increase of just 3% over a 6-year period, which works out to an annual average increase of just 0.5%.

Consider this. In December 2017, the consumer price index for Edmonton was 137.6. This past December, it sat at 163.9. That’s a 19.11% increase.

So, if the workers had accepted this proposal, they would’ve had a 3% increase over a 6-year period, yet inflation had increased by more than 6 times that!

This means that the workers would’ve settled for a cut in real wages, which is wages adjusted for inflation. If you get a 3% wage increase but inflation was 19.11%, then you end up with a 16.11% cut to your real wages.

In other words, what cost these workers $100 in December 2017 would’ve cost them $116.11 last month. Or to put it another way, that same $100 would’ve allowed these workers to afford to purchase only $83.89 worth of the sames goods and services last month.

Even if we include the increases proposed for this year and next, it still wouldn’t be enough to make up for increased cost of living over the last 6 years. Never mind the fact that there will be inflation this year and next year, too, which will eat into those increases.

The union had countered with modest increases above the city’s proposals.

That works out to 4.5% for library workers and 5% for the other city workers. And while that may seem significantly more than the 3% the City of Edmonton proposed, it still falls short of the 19.11% inflation since December 2017.

According to CSU 52, the City of Edmonton “refused to consider this offer” and said that “there was no room to move on the monetary offer”.

In both cases, the mediator wrote out mediation in the middle of January, at the request of the City of Edmonton, which effectively ends the mediation process.

That initiated a 14-day cooling off period, during which time the two parties can resume bargaining, the union can hold a strike vote, and the employer can initiate a lockout.

The union reported that managers at the City of Edmonton were telling workers that they intended to file for a lockout. As a result, the union has filed both strike vote applications with the ALRB to protect the workers.

Without a strike vote, if the employer does lockout the workers, the contract that the workers have been working on (even though it expired over 3 years ago) would become null and void. After 24 hours, the employer could invite workers back to work under new terms, that the worker’s wouldn’t have had a chance to bargain on through their negotiating team. A strike could counter that tactic.

The 14-day cooling off period ended yesterday.

The ALRB doesn’t archive their new application reports, so I’ve included a copy of this one below.