Earlier this month, Local 401 of the united Food And Commercial Workers published an update regarding contract negotiations for workers employed by Red Lobster in Edmonton.
The latest contract for these 80 or so workers expired in March 2023, over a year ago.
Included in the new 2-year contract is a 3-day paid bereavement leave for the workers to either arrange or attend the funeral of their parent or parent in law, spouse, child or step-child, sibling, grandparent, or grandchild.
Under the previous contract, Red Lobster put new workers on probation. for 15 shifts. In the new contract, the probationary period has been extended to 20 shifts.
The employer has also put restriction on how many people can go on vacation at a time. For front-of-house, no more than 3 workers can be on vacation at the same time, and it’s a maximum of 2 for what Red Lobster calls heart of house. Red Lobster reserves the right to increase that number.
Servers at Red Lobster have to pay at least 2% of their tips into a pool. Under the previous contract, servers whose daily net sales exceeded $1,500 on a day didn’t have to contribute to the tip pool on anything above $1,500 for that day. That exception has been removed in the new contract.
As far as wages go, the last time these workers received a raise was in December 2020. The new contract doesn’t establish annual raises, but it did indicate new wages upon ratification. Here’s how those wages compare to the wages they had in December 2020.
| Dec 2020 | March 2024 | Change | % change | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bartender | $15.20 | $16.70 | $1.50 | 9.87% |
| Prep cook | $16.20 | $18.20 | $2.00 | 12.35% |
| Utility person | $16.20 | $18.20 | $2.00 | 12.35% |
| Alley coordinator | $16.20 | $18.20 | $2.00 | 12.35% |
| Line cook | $16.20 | $18.20 | $2.00 | 12.35% |
| Restaurant supervisor | $17.20 | $19.20 | $2.00 | 11.63% |
| Certified restaurant supervisor | $18.20 | $20.20 | $2.00 | 10.99% |
Bartenders are set to receive a $1.50 an hour raise, while everyone else in this grid should be getting a $2 raise, assuming workers vote in favour of this proposed contract.
On a percentage basis, the raises range from 9.87% for bartenders to 12.35% for prep cooks, utility persons, alley coordinators, and line cooks. That works out to an average of 3.29% and 4.12% a year over the last 3 years. Those averages drop to 1.97% and 2.47% if you add on the two years of the new contract.
Meanwhile, inflation in Alberta between just January 2023 and January 2024 was 3.4%, and it averaged 4.79% per year between December 2020 and December 2023. Assuming these rates continue over the next two years, these increases will be less than inflation.
There was no increase for servers included in this new contract.
Workers will have a chance to vote on this proposed contract this Wednesday (20th) between 10:00 and noon and between 13:00 and 20:00 at the Quality Inn West Edmonton (17803 Stony Plain Road).
