Last month, the Mediation Services department of Alberta Jobs, Economy, and Trade published the December 2024 Bargaining Update.
This monthly report provides information about the unionized workforce, primarily in Alberta. In December, Mediation Services received settlement information regarding 24 private sector and 10 public sector bargaining settlements, covering 2,429 and 3,797 workers respectively.
Among those settlements was a contract for about 20 workers employed by Silver Prime Hotels Ltd. These workers are represented by Local 47 of the UNITE HERE.
Silver Prime operates the Holiday Inn Express on 104 Street in Edmonton, where these workers are employed.
The workers include housekeepers, front office workers, breakfast bar workers, banquet workers, and maintenance workers.
The previous contract for the workers expired in January 2022. The new contract was settled until July 2024, 2.5 years later.
When the previous contract was published by Mediation Services, it listed 40 workers, which means that Buffalo Catering lost nearly 20 of its unionized workers since 2017.
According to the bargaining update, these workers will receive wage increases in every year of their new 4-year contract.
| 29 July 2024 | 50¢ |
| 29 July 2025 | 35¢ |
| 29 July 2026 | 35¢ |
| 29 July 2027 | 40¢ |
Their last wage increase, prior to this new contract, was in February 2021, so this means that since this contract isn’t retractive to the expiration of that last contract, these workers ended up with wage freezes in 2022 and 2023.
The percentage of the increase varies, depending on how much each worker made. For starting wages, it ranged from 6.96% for maintenance supervisors to 10.71% for banquet servers.
For workers who have been with the hotel for at least a year, the increases ranged from 6.54% for maintenance supervisors to 10.15% for breakfast bar hosts.
Even with these increases, however, many of the workers will be making under $20 an hour, especially as a starting wage, by the end of the contract.
| Starting | 6 months | 1 year | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Housekeeping supervisor | $18.48 | $19.05 | $19.50 |
| Room & laundry attendant | $17.52 | $17.96 | $18.92 |
| Houseperson | $17.52 | $17.96 | $18.92 |
| Night cleaner | $19.55 | $20.17 | $20.70 |
| Front office supervisor | $20.11 | $20.78 | $21.44 |
| Guest services | $18.24 | $18.76 | $19.28 |
| Night auditor | $19.86 | $20.62 | $21.21 |
| Breakfast bar host | $16.84 | $17.01 | $17.47 |
| Banquet server | $16.54 | $17.01 | $17.47 |
| Bartender | $16.84 | $17.37 | $17.90 |
| Banquet lead hand | $18.87 | $19.44 | $20.04 |
| Maintenance supervisor | $24.59 | $25.41 | $26.06 |
| General maintenance labourer | $21.42 | $22.07 | $22.88 |
The consumer price index for Alberta changed from 146.4 in February 2021 (when they received their last wage increase prior to their last contract) to 166.8 in June 2023. This increase of 20.4 points represented a 13.93% increase.
With inflation at 13.93% but wages increasing between just 6.54% and 10.71%, these workers saw their real wages—wages adjusted for inflation—drop by between 3.22% and 7.39%.
Getting 2 years of wage freezes between these two contract is the main culprit here.
And remember, that’s just dealing with inflation up until last February; that’s not including inflation the rest of 2024, in this year or next year, in 2027, or in the first half of 2028, before this new contract expires.
For example, inflation between February and December of last year alone was an additional 1.74%.
With 3.5 more years of inflation still to come, we can expect much worse effects on real wages than what I’ve outlined above.
A 10.71% raise is significant, but following two wage freezes—especially during the highest inflation we’d seen since the 1980s—it’s just sorely inadequate.
Here is the one change between the previous contract and the new contract that will affect the workers.
Under the previous contract, the employer had agreed to make matching RRSP contributions of up to $400 per year for any workers who had been with the company for at least 5 years. That has been reduced to 4 years in the new contract.
