Last month, the Mediation Services department of Alberta Jobs, Economy, and Trade published their May 2024 Bargaining Update, which includes details on recently settled collective agreements.
One of the agreements was between Local 362 of the Teamsters and Burnco Rock Products in Lethbridge.
Local 362 of the Teamsters represents about 5 workers employed at Burnco’s Lethbridge location as mixer drivers. The union also represents workers in Calgary and Red Deer and filed to unionize workers in Medicine Hat last September (they won and settled their first agreement in February).
Based out of Calgary, Burnco is a construction materials company that produces aggregates, paving asphalt, and ready mix concrete.
Mediation Services didn’t provide a copy of the new two-year collective agreement, so I won’t be able to comprehensively review all the changes between it and the previous government.
However, the department did provide information on wage increases:
| 1 Mar 2024 | 2.50% |
| 1 Mar 2025 | 3.00% |
That works out to a combined increase of 5.5% during the life of the contract, or 2.75% per year, on average.
By the end of the contract, the end rate for these mixer drivers will have reached $31.21 an hour, up from the $29.56 they started the contract with.
The new collective agreement, which had to go to mediation, is effective as of 1 January 2024 and will expire at the end of February in 2026.
This is only the second contract these workers have negotiated since unionizing in February 2022.
