Last month, the Mediation Services department of Alberta Jobs, Economy, and Trade published the April 2025 Bargaining Update.
This monthly report provides information about the unionized workforce, primarily in Alberta. In April, Mediation Services received settlement information regarding 20 private sector and 19 public sector bargaining settlements, covering 990 and 43,727 workers respectively.
Among those settlements was a contract for just 2 workers employed by Friends of Medicare: the communications and administrative officer and the outreach and fundraising officer.
Based out of Edmonton, Friends of Medicare is a non-profit coalition seniors’ organizations, labour organizations, cultural, faith and community groups, and physicians and patients who advocate for the preservation of Medicare.
The workers are represented by Local 474 of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, the same local that represents workers at Public Interest Alberta.
Their previous contract expired just this past December. Their new contract was ratified earlier that same month. It’s refreshing to see a collective agreement ratified before the previous one expires, something that seems rare in Alberta.
This contract runs from the January 2025 until the end of December 2027, so it’s basically for 3 years, the same length as the previous contract.
This new collective agreement includes wage increases in every one of those 3 years.
| 1 January 2025 | 4.66% |
| 1 January 2026 | 3% |
| 1 January 2027 | 3% |
That’s a combined increase of 10.66% over the the length of the contract. This works out to an average of 3.55% per year.
This is better than what these workers got in their last contract.
| 1 January 2022 | 3% |
| 1 January 2023 | 3% |
| 1 January 2024 | 3% |
Meanwhile, inflation increased by 13.79% during the same period, so these workers ended up with a cut to real wages of 4.79% heading into negotiations for their latest contract.
The raise coming in the first year of the new collective agreement will come short of covering that shortfall, leaving just 0.13% to deal with inflation between January 2024 and January 2025, which was 2.53%.
If inflation during the last two years of the contract comes to less than 1.75%, then the workers will break even on real wages, or even come a little bit ahead.
However, the new agreement has a cost of living adjustment clause built in, which means that salaries “will be adjusted to reflect any increase in the cost of living”. This means that the above increases are base increases, which means—at least for this contract—the workers no longer have to worry about falling behind inflation.
Here are some highlights of other things that have changed in this new contract.
The travel allowance has increased from $60 a day to $69 a day. The out-of-province travel allowance premium has increased from $20 per day to $25 per day.
Workers can now substitute holidays for days of their own choosing, which would then be considered statutory holidays for the purposes of pay. These holidays include, but are not limited to, all federal, provincial, and municipal statutory holidays and the following:
- Indigenous Peoples Day,
- Chinese/Vietnamese New Year
- Rosh Hashanah
- Nowruz
- Samhain
- Diwali
- Kwanza
- Eid
- Salem
- Yom Kippur
- Summer solstice
- Winter solstice
- Beltane
- Lunar new year
- African Liberation Day
- Passover
- Eastern Orthodox Christmas
- Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day
- lmbolc
- Lughnasadh
- Vernal equinox
- Autumnal equinox
Vacation time has changed in the new collective agreement.
| Vacation time | Years of service (old) | Years of service (new) |
|---|---|---|
| 4 weeks | 1 year | 1 year |
| 5 weeks | 4 years | 3 years |
| 6 weeks | 10 years | 8 years |
| 7 weeks | — | 15 years |
The workers are entitled to sick leave of up to 2 days to deal with illness of family members. The list of applicable family members has been extended to include any dependents who reside in the same household.
Bereavement leave for workers to attend a loved one’s funeral has been expanded to include “any person the employee isn’t related to but considers to be like a close relative”.
The following has been added to the article covering special leave:
Employees shall be granted any job protected leaves mandated by provincial, federal or other legislation, without pay and without loss of seniority.
Severance pay was calculated in the old contract on length of employment with the company, with up to 1 year being 1 week’s pay and more than 10 years being 6 weeks’ pay, and various combinations in between. Now, it’s 4 weeks pay for anyone working between 6 months and 1 year for the company and then an additional 2 weeks for every year of service after that. Severance pay maxes out at 52 weeks though.
In the previous agreement, Friends of Medicare paid workers an additional 10% of their regular pay rate in lieu of health benefits. In the new agreement, they’re now providing these workers with a benefits plan, and they’re covering 100% of the monthly premiums.
The health and wellness account has been increased from $750 per year to $900 per year.
Friends of Medicare pays 5% of each worker’s annual salary into an RRSP. This was restricted to just permanent workers. Now, it appears to be available for all workers.
In a new letter of understanding, the Friends of Medicare and CUPE will explore opportunities for the workers to join a pension plan, with review of such a plan occurring 6 months after ratification, which is this month.
