Last month, the Mediation Services department of Alberta Jobs, Economy, Trade, and Immigration published their December 2025 Bargaining Update.
The monthly report provides information about Alberta’s unionized workforce, primarily collective agreement settlement information the department received in December 2025.
In December, Mediation Services received settlement information regarding 40 bargaining relationships encompassing 21,601 employees. Of those relationships, 17 were in the private sector and 23 were in the public sector, covering 2,128 and 19,473 employees respectively.
One of those collective agreements was for about 20 workers employed by Wajax Power Systems.
Based out of Mississauga, Ontario, Wajax Power Systems is affiliated with Integrated Distribution Systems Limited Partnership, including one of the partners in that partnership—Wajax GP Trust—and its trustee: Wajax GP Holdco Inc.
Wajax specializes in sales, parts, and services to a broad range of customers in such sectors as construction, forestry, mining, industrial and commercial, transportation, metal processing, government, utilities, and fossil fuels.
They have over 100 locations across Canada, including two dozen in Alberta.
This particular collective agreement covers all of Wajax workers in Edmonton except those employed in office and sales positions.
They are members of Local 1722 of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers and include heavy equipment technicians, welders, electricians, parts technicians, warehouse and shipping workers, and labourers.
Their previous collective agreement expired at the end of last April. This new agreement was ratified just two weeks later.
The new agreement includes 3 percentage-based wage increases, the first of which was retroactive:
| 1 May 2025 | 2.50% |
| 1 May 2026 | 2.00% |
| 1 May 2027 | 1.50% |
This is a combined 6% over the course of the agreement, which expires in April 2028, or an average of 2% per year.
This is a bit lower than their last collective agreement, which gave them a 6.5% increase over 3 years.
By the time this new collective agreement expires, the lowest base wage will be $21.60 an hour.
Here are some more changes between the previous collective agreement and the new one.
In the previous collective agreement, 20% of unionized workers in a shop area could take their vacation at the same time. The new agreement increases that to 35%. However, the Allison and power generation shop areas were removed from this clause.
The following was added to the collective agreement:
13.22 In the event of any discrepancies regarding overpayment by the employer, a discussion will take place with the effected [sic] individual and immediate supervisor, with the steward present. An appropriate payment plan will be established by mutual agreement to prevent undue financial hardship on employees.
In the event of a discrepancy involving an underpayment of less than $250 by the employer, a discussion will take place between the affected individual and their immediate supervisor. For any underpayment exceeding $250, the discussion will include the affected individual, their immediate supervisor, and a union steward.
All errors or omissions will be corrected on the next scheduled pay following discovery, issued as a separate deposit, subject to payroll cut-off timelines.
The following premiums have been change from percentage amounts to dollar amounts:
| Old | New | |
|---|---|---|
| Field | 12.0% | $5.59 per hour |
| Charge hand | 10.0% | $4.66 per hour |
| Lead hand | 5.5% | $2.56 per hour |
