Last month, Alberta Labour Relations updated their collective bargaining agreements database with the most recent negotiated collective agreements.
One of the new agreements was between Keyano College in Fort McMurray and the support workers employed there, who are unionized with Local 2157 of the Canadian Union of Public Employees.
The nearly 200 workers have been working off their previous agreement, which actually expired in June 2020, nearly 4 years ago.
Alberta Labour Relations provided information on only wage increases, so I won’t be able to compare the entire contract with the previous contract.
The new contract, which was settled on 8 March 2024, will be effective as of July 2020 and will expire at the end of June 2024, less than 3 months away.
In the first three years of the new 4-year contract, the workers will see no wage increases. They will then see 2 wage increases in the final year.
| 1 July 2020 | 0.00% |
| 1 July 2021 | 0.00% |
| 1 July 2022 | 0.00% |
| 1 April 2023 | 1.25% |
| 1 December 2023 | 1.50% |
The disappointing part isn’t that these workers are getting 3 years of wage freezes. I mean, it is disappointing. But their last contract, which was only a year long, had no wage increases, and there were wage freezes in the final 2 years of the contract before that.
This means 6 years straight of wage freezes for these workers. Until this contract, the last time these workers received a wage increase was in July 2016.
Speaking of July 2016, in that month, Alberta’s consumer price index sat at 135.6. By the time we reached April 2023, it had increased to 163.7. That was a jump of 28.1, or 20.72%.
In the nearly 7 years between when these workers received their last increase and their first increase of this new contract, inflation shot up by nearly 21%!
Because these workers are receiving a combined increase of 2.75% throughout the entire life of this new contract yet inflation was 20.72%, these workers have a received a reduction in real wages of nearly 18%.
Real wages are wages adjusted for inflation.
For every $1000 these workers made in July 2016, when we adjust for inflation and the new wage increases, they are now making just $820.30.
To put it another way, for every $100 they spent on good and services in 2016, it now would buy them just $82.03. In other words, if they wanted to buy the same goods and services today (or in April 2023), it would cost them $117.97.
And that’s including if we add in the raise from this past December.
Keep in mind that the inflation only includes data to last April. Inflation has continued to increase since then. For example, between April 2023 and this past February (the most recent data we have), inflation has increased by another 1.89%.
That means that by the time this contract ends in a couple of months, their real wages will have decreased even more.
Since the employer dragged their feet on negotiations for nearly 4 years, this new contract is already nearing the expiration date. The bargaining team for these workers will have hardly much of a break before they need to start negotiations for the next contract, which normally should be going into effect in July.
These workers include administrative support, institutional support, instructional support, technical support, and tradespersons.
