Earlier this month, the Mediation Services department of Alberta Jobs, Economy, and Trade published the August 2025 Bargaining Update.
This monthly report provides information about the unionized workforce, primarily in Alberta. In August, Mediation Services received settlement information regarding 24 private sector and 20 public sector bargaining settlements, covering 5,581 and 6,752 workers respectively.
Among those settlements was a contract for about 10 workers employed by BFI Constructors.
Local 955 of the International Union of Operating Engineers represents these workers, which include crane technicians, mechanics, welders. machinists, and yardpersons. They are stationed out of the company’s Edmonton location.
IUOE 955 also represents BFI workers in Fort McMurray, whose own collective agreement expired this past summer.
This new agreement for the Edmonton workers is actually a first agreement. In an email to The Alberta Worker, Declan Regan, a central district supervisor for IUOE 955, said that BFI recently “opened up a new line of businesses, and we developed a new agreement for the shop”.
According to the August 2025 Bargaining Update, the new agreement for the Edmonton workers, which was ratified in June, includes wage increases every year.
| 2 weeks after ratification | 2.5% |
| May 2026 | 2.5% |
| May 2027 | 2.5% |
That is a combined increase of 7.5% over the life of the contract.
By the end of the contract, entry-level yardpersons will be the only workers making under $30 an hour as a base rate.
Here are some highlights of benefits in this collective agreement.
BFI will supply workers with the tools they need to complete their duties. Any workers who must provide their own tool will be eligible for a tool allowance: 50¢ an hour for welders and machinists and $1 an hour for mechanics.
Workers who have completed their probationary period will be eligible for a $225 annual boot allowance.
Anyone who works after noon and before 05:00 will be entitled to a shift differential of $2.50 per hour on all hours worked in their regularly scheduled shift.
Overtime will be paid out at 1.5 times the regular pay rate on hours over 8 hours per day and 40 hours per week for non-compressed workweeks and over 40 average weekly hours on compressed workweeks.
Workers will get 2 15-minute coffee breaks per shift, as well as a 30-minute lunch break. There will also be a 10-minute washup break at the end of each shift. Lunch breaks will be paid only for workers on a 12-hour daily shift.
The employer must give workers at least 8 hours off between shifts, as well as 24 hours’ notice for any temporary shift changes. Workers required to work on their scheduled day off will be paid at 1.5 times their regular pay rate.
BFI has agreed to provide the following 12 recognized holidays, which will be used to determine statutory holiday pay.
- New Year’s Day
- Family Day
- Good Friday
- Victoria Day
- Canada Day
- Boxing Day
- Civic holiday
- Labour Day
- Thanksgiving Day
- Remembrance Day
- Christmas Day
- Truth and Reconciliation Day
Anyone having to work these days will be paid at 1.5 times their regular pay rate.
Bereavement pay is 36 hours and applies to the planning and attending of funeral for spouses, children (including step), siblings and parents (including in laws), grandparents, and siblings of their parents. Bereavement leave includes pregnancy loss.
Unpaid leave of up to 3 months is available for any worker who wants it, provided operating conditions can accommodate that leave.
BFI has agreed to pay $2.05 for each hour worked by each worker into the Operating Engineers Local 955 Health and Wellness
Trust Fund.
They will also pay 10% of the base rate for all hours worked, which will go into the Operating Engineers Local 955 Pension Trust Fund.
And they will pay 10¢ per hour worked into the Operating Engineers Local 955 Training Trust Fund and 5¢ per hour worked into the Operating Engineers Advancement Fund.
