Earlier this month, the Mediation Services department of Alberta Jobs, Economy, and Trade published the July 2024 Bargaining Update.
This monthly report provides information about the unionized workforce, primarily in Alberta. Last month, Mediation Services received settlement information regarding 26 private sector and 10 public sector bargaining settlements, covering 2,032 and 6,698 workers respectively.
One of those settlements was for 15 workers employed by Pastew Place Detox Centre in Fort McMurray.
The workers include detox client aides and those working in the kitchen. They are represented by Local 2545 of the Canadian Union of Public Employees.
They had been without a new contract since their previous one expired in April 2021. The workers and the employers finally settled on a new contract just his past March, nearly 3 years later. Mediation Services only recently received the contract however.
The new 3-year contract was set to expire at the beginning of April, less than two weeks after it was settled. It comes with one small wage increase.
| 1 April 2021 | 0.0% |
| 1 April 2022 | 0.0% |
| 1 April 2023 | 1.5% |
That works out to an average increase of just 0.5% per year.
This is certainly better than their previous contract, which saw a wage freeze. In fact, these workers haven’t received a wage increase since July 2016. Not only that, but since that contract, they’ve had several 1-year contract, each of which brought a wage freeze.
Here’s a look at their wage increases since their last raise in 2016 (which, by the way, was a 3% increase, the same increase in every year of that 3-year contract):
| 1 July 2017 | 0.0% |
| 1 April 2018 | 0.0% |
| 1 April 2019 | 0.0% |
| 1 April 2020 | 0.0% |
| 1 April 2021 | 0.0% |
| 1 April 2022 | 0.0% |
| 1 April 2023 | 1.5% |
So, in a 7-year period—July 2016 to March 2024—these workers are set to receive a combined 1.5% increase.
Meanwhile, between July 2016 and June 2024, the consumer price index in Alberta increased from 135.6 to 167.3. That’s a 31.7-point jump, or 23.38%.
And remember, that doesn’t include inflation between July 2024 and June 2025, the final year of this new contract, so inflation will likely be higher than 24.93%.
This means the workers have seen a reduction in real wages—wages adjusted for inflation—of 21.88% since the summer of 2016.
That means what cost them $1000 in July 2016 now costs them $1218.78 today. Or to put it another way, they can afford only $781.22 of those same goods and services today that they bought with $1000 8 years ago. And that’s taking into account the one raise they’ve received during that time.
Since 2016, the starting rate of pay for these workers was $22.29 and the end rate was $24.83. For the first time in 8 years, these have increased, to $22.62 and $25.20, respectively. That’s a rise of 33¢ and 37¢ an hour.
All that being said, there is a clause in the contract that says if the employer can secure additional funding, the bargaining committees will meet to discuss additional wage increases.
Here are some highlights of changes in the new contract.
For casual workers, they must reply to shift requests within 3 hours. If they don’t, the employer will consider them as having rejected the shift. If this happens consecutively three times, the employer can terminate their employment. As well, casual workers will be considered internal candidates when applying to job postings, unless they have turned down 3 shift offerings over the previous year.
The probationary period has been increased from 3 months to 180 days, which is roughly 6 months (assuming 30 days per month).
All workers will receive notice in the event of a layoff. Under the old contract, only workers having been with the employer for at least 4 years would’ve received notice.
Related to this, workers who have been laid off will now retain seniority and the right to recall for 18 months, up from 14 months in the previous contract.
A representative from the union will have 5 minutes at the end of the monthly staff meeting to make union-related announcements, something that wasn’t allowed in the previous contract.
National Day for Truth and Reconciliation has been added to the list of statutory holidays.
Holiday pay for casual workers will increase from 4% to 5%.
Bereavement leave has been extended to include the death of Indigenous elders. As well, under the previous contract, bereavement leave was 48 hours for immediate family members and 36 hours for everyone else. Now, it’s 48 hours across the board.
