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 over 120 workers employed by Chantelle Management at their Grande Prairie Care Centre, a 120-bed residential care facility providing continuing care services.
The workers include licensed practical nurses, healthcare aides, recreational aides, and those working in housekeeping and the kitchen. They are represented by Local 2158 of the Canadian Union of Public Employees.
They had been without a new contract since their previous one expired in June 2022. The workers and the employers finally settled on a new contract last November, over a year after their previous contract had expired. Mediation Services only recently received the contract however.
The new 3-year contract is set to expire next June and comes with small wage increases in each year of the contract.
| LPNs & HCA | Everyone else | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 June 2023 | 1.5% | 1.5% |
| 2 Dec 2023 | 2.0% | — |
| 1 June 2024 | 1.5% | 1.5% |
| 1 June 2025 | 1.0% | 1.0% |
That works out to a combined 6% for licensed practical nurses and healthcare aides, and 4% for everyone else.
This is certainly better than their previous contract, which saw everyone receive just one increase of 0.6% during the entire two years. Their contract before that, which was also for two years, gave them three wage increases of 0.5% each.
So, in a 9-year period—July 2016 to June 2025—these workers are set to receive a combined 8.1% and 6.1%, depending on their role at the care facility.
Meanwhile, between July 2016 and June 2024, the consumer price index in Alberta increased from 135.6 to 169.4. That’s a 33.8-point jump, or 24.93%.
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%.
But even if we assume inflation over the next year will be 0%, the workers will still have seen a reduction in real wages—wages adjusted for inflation—of 16.83% and 18.83% since the summer of 2016.
That means what cost them $1000 in July 2016 now costs them $1168.30 and $1188.30 today. And that’s taking into account all the raises they’ve received during that time.
Very few other changes occurred in this new contract, outside some grammatical issues. One significant change was that National Day of Truth and Reconciliation was added to the paid general holidays list.
