While browsing through the collective bargaining agreement database on the Government of Alberta website, I noticed a new contract for electrical workers employed by the City of Lethbridge.
These workers are employed in construction and maintenance and include power line technicians, electric metering technicians, live line specialists, cable locator specialists, and electric substation technicians.
These 75 or so workers are represented by Local 254 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and their previous contract had expired at the end of 2022.
They settled on a new 3-year contract just last month, almost two years later.
And what did they get in this contract? Well, Mediation Services hasn’t received the entire contract yet, so I can’t provide a comprehensive comparison between the two contracts. However, they did include pay increases.
| 1 January 2023 | 3.00% |
| 1 January 2024 | 2.50% |
| 1 January 2025 | 2.50% |
That’s a combined 8%, or an average of 2.67% per year.
Here’s what their raises looked like in their last contract.
| 2018 | 2.25% |
| 2019 | 1.00% |
| 2020 | 1.50% |
| 2021 | 1.50% |
| 2022 | 2.00% |
That’s a combined 8.25% over 5 years, which is barely more than the 8% they’re getting in their new 3-year contract. The annual average is 1.65%, compared to 2.67% in their new contract.
Clearly the new contract is better, at least as far as pay increases go. But don’t pop the bubbly just yet. We have some context to work through.
Between January 2017 and January 2023, the consumer price index in Alberta increased from 137.0 to 160.5. That’s a jump of 23.5 points, or 17.15%.
Inflation increased during their last contract at more than double the rate as wage increases. That means these workers ended up with a cut to real wages—wages adjusted for inflation—of 8.9% going into bargaining.
This new increase of 8% falls just shy of covering the shortfall in real wages during that period. But, of course, that’s not including inflation during the new contract.
For example, inflation in 2023 and the first 9 month of 2024 has already increased 5.42% bringing their real wages to 6.52% below inflation to date. And we still have more than one year of inflation in this new contract.
The new collective agreement will expire at the end of 2025.
