Last week, Local 401 of the United Food and Commercial Workers published an update on their website regarding negotiations for some of the home care workers they represent.
These 25 or so workers are employed in Strathmore by Bayshore Home Care Solutions and have been without a new contract since their previous one expired last November.
The employer has refused to offer wage increases, despite months of negotiations. As a result, UFCW Local 401 filed for mediation earlier in April, and the two parties have been in mediation since May.
According to last week’s update, the union claims that Bayshore said in September’s mediation session that the parties were too far apart for mediation to continue.
Well, of course. If the workers want wage increases, and you want to give them wage freezes, that’s a pretty wide gap.
In fact, at the end of June, according to Local 401, the employer said in front of the mediator that they wanted the workers to withdraw all proposals, and in return, they’d give them a 1% lump sum payment.
The problem with lump sum payments is that they don’t increase your base pay. For example, if you make $17.59 an hour, like some of the workers do, and you get a 1% lump sum payment, you’d end up getting $17.77 an hour this year for all hours worked, but next year, you’d be back at $17.59.
And even if it was an actual 1% pay raise, that’s nothing.
Here, take a look at what wage increases looked like in the last contract.
| 19 November 2019 | 0.00% |
| 19 November 2020 | 0.00% |
| 19 November 2021 | 1.00% |
| 19 November 2022 | 1.00% |
Meanwhile, the consumer price index in Alberta increased from 140.7 in November 2018 to 161.6 in November 2022, a jump of 20.9 points, or 14.85%
These workers got a 2% wage increase in their last contract, but inflation increased by nearly 15% during the same period.
And Bayshore thinks they should get more wage freezes? C’mon, how could anyone think this is bargaining in good faith?
Keep in mind that the inflation numbers I cited above are just until two years ago; inflation increased last year and this year, and will likely increase next year and in the final year of the contract, so these workers are even worse off than the 13% reduction in real wages during the last contract.
In contrast, the workers have asked for a 10% wage increase in each year of the contract, but has left the contract length open.
The first two years of such raises would cover the 12.85% loss in real wages during their previous contract, as well as the 4.7% increase in inflation since their last raise two years ago, with 2.45% leftover to cover inflation until November 2025.
That seems far more reasonable than Bayshore’s offer, if you can even call it an offer.
Remember, these health care aides are frozen at 2022 wages, all of which are below $20 an hour.
| Hours worked | Lodge HCAs | Community HCAs |
|---|---|---|
| 0–3000 hours | $17.98 | $17.59 |
| 3001–6000 hours | $18.19 | $17.86 |
| 6001–9000 hours | $18.83 | $18.11 |
| 9001+ hours | $19.29 | $19.38 |
The union is still willing to work with the mediator, so we’ll see how that turns out, given that the employer thinks mediation is pointless. The most recent contract between these workers and Bayshore took four years to negotiate.
These workers joined Local 401 in November 2019. This will be their second contract since unionization.
