Last week, the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees published on their website the results of strike mandate survey they recently conducted with some of their members.
In that survey, a massive majority indicated that they were ready to go on strike for better pay and conditions
AUPE represents about 70 workers employed by Legal Aid Society, a publicly-funded non-profit organization providing legal representation to low-income Albertans.
These workers include administrative support, assessment officers, certificate and tariff officers, financial analysts, computer technicians, intake officers, and resource developers.
Their most recent collective agreement expired in March 2024, about a year and a half ago. Bargaining did not begin, however, until last June, 3 months later.
By the time this past January came around, bargaining on just the non-monetary items (such as working from home) still had not been agreed to.
Plus, Legal Aid had still not proposed their monetary items by that point, even though the workers’ bargaining team had requested them back in November. Instead, Legal Aid cancelled the November bargaining date, came with nothing to the January meeting, and told the workers that they woud have nothing for the February dates either. They said that that they could be ready for a meeting in March, but then cancelled those meetings—without providing a reason.
In fact, it was not until April of this year that they finally put monetary items—including wages—on the table.
Get this though. The bargaining team for Legal Aid comes to April’s bargaining meeting, presented their wage proposals, then immediately said they wanted to informal mediation.
And when the worker’s bargaining team responded by saying they wanted to negotiate on the offer, the bargaining team for the employer simply walked out of the room.
In Alberta, negotiations can go into informal mediation only if both parties agree to it. The workers’ bargaining team refused, saying they were willing to continue bargaining or go to formal mediation.
If the parties do end up seeking formal mediation, it then paves the way for lockout or strike, since formal mediation is a prerequisite for both.
In their wage proposal, the employer offered 7.5% over 4 years, which is less than 2% a year. In the two years since these workers received their last raise (in September 2023), inflation has already increased 3.98%.
Keep in mind that these workers have received 6 years of wage freeze in a row since 2017, followed by a measly 2.75% in 2023.
| 1 April 2017 | 0.00% |
| 1 April 2018 | 0.00% |
| 1 April 2019 | 0.00% |
| 1 April 2020 | 0.00% |
| 1 April 2021 | 0.00% |
| 1 April 2022 | 0.00% |
| 1 January 2023 | 1.25% |
| 1 Seeptember 2023 | 1.50% |
Inflation during the same period was 21.17%. A raise of just 2.75% left these workers with a cut to real wages of 18.42%.
There is no way their proposal of 7.5% will cover that loss. It will not even cover half of it.
Remember, that 7.5% would be over 4 years, which means 4 more years of inflation, too, so it would have even less of an effect on their lost wages.
This is why the workers’ bargaining table proposed an increase of 13% in the first year of a 3-year contract. It, too, would not eliminate the 18.42% cut to real wages, but it take out a huge chunk of it. Plus, that would be followed by 6.5% in the second year and 6.5% in the final year. This should be enough to cover the lost wages and keep up with inflation during the new contract.
The workers also proposed eliminating the first step of all current pay grids, which would effectively create a higher starting wage for all positions.
They also wanted to get rid of the first 4 pay grid steps for administrative support level 2 and payables clerk positions, as those grid steps are below the living wage in both Calgary and Edmonton.
Next, the workers’ bargaining committee wants to standardized the pay grid to have a 6% increase between steps. Finally, they proposed a cost-of-living adjustment, for when inflation exceeds wage increases.
Since that time, the two parties have entered mediation.
In the meantime, in an effort to prepare for a possible strike, the bargaining committee surveyed workers employed by Legal Aid to gauge willingness to strike.
Of those who participated in the survey, 93% said they were willing to strike to receive wage increases.
The same amount were willing to strike to limit the employer’s ability to change their work-from-home schedule.
Finally, 87% said they would strike for the remainder of the monetary positions, which include:
- Refuse rollback to medical appointment leave
- Increase Flexible Health Spending account by $300
- Double the number of paid bonus days
- Add National Day for Truth and Reconciliation as a paid holiday
Mediation resumes on the 9th and 10th of October. Hopefully, the survey results will provide the workers’ bargaining team the leverage they need to get Legal Aid to move on their original offer.
