Mediator gives not-for-profit workers 3% raise

Last week, the Mediation Services department of Alberta Jobs, Economy, and Trade published the August 2024 Bargaining Update.

This monthly report provides information about the unionized workforce, primarily in Alberta. Last month, Mediation Services received settlement information regarding 28 private sector and 9 public sector bargaining settlements, covering 2,361 and 1,857 workers respectively.

Among those settlements was a contract for 400 workers in Red Deer, who are employed by Parkland Community Living and Supports Society, a not-for-profit providing disability supports to adults and children in the region.

The workers are represented by Local 3000 of the Laborers’ International Union of North America and include residential aides, family support aides, placement aides, bus drivers, teachers, nurses, maintenance staff, and housekeepers.

Their previous contract expired last August, and their new contract was just settled last month, nearly a full year later, after several months in mediation.

According to the bargaining update, the full contract isn’t available, so I’m unable to comprehensively compare this new contract with the previous one.

However, Mediation Services did provide details on wage increases.

1 Sep 2023	0.00%
1 Sep 2024	3.00%
1 Sep 2025	0.00%

So, two years of wage freezes with a single increase of 3% in the middle year. That’s what the mediator gave them.

Compare that to the wage increases they received in their previous contract, which had gone to arbitration.

1 Sep 2020	0.00%
1 Sep 2021	1.00%
1 Sep 2022	1.00%

So, that’s 5% over a 6-year period, or about 0.83% per year, on average. That’s not much, especially when you consider the increase in the cost of living.

For example, in September 2019, the consumer price index of Alberta sat 142.9 but had increased to 166.0 by last September, 4 years later. That’s a jump of 23.1 points, or 16.17%.

During that same period, including the wage freeze in first year of this new contract, these workers got a wage increase of just 2%. This is a cut to real wages—wages adjusted for inflation—of 14.17%.

In other words, for every $1000 they earned in September 2019, it’s worth only $858.30 today, even when you include the raises they received in 2021 and 2022.

To put it another way, for every $1000 they spend in September 2019 on goods and services, they’d have to spend $1141.70 in September 2023—when the new contract went into effect, retroactively—to buy those same goods and services.

Either that, or they’d be able to afford only $858.30 worth of those same goods and services.

And there is no way the 3% wage increase that was supposed to go into effect this month will be enough to make up for a real wage drop that is almost 5 times as large.

Remember, that’s not including inflation for this year and next year, which means these workers are going to be even further behind in being able to afford to support themselves and their families.

To be fair, these workers were set to receive a 3% lump sum payment in September 2023 and one in September 2025. And certainly, that will help, but lump sum payments aren’t raises.

Lump sum payments don’t increase your base salary.

Basically, if I made $30,000 in 2022, I’d be entitled to an extra $900 as of September 2023. However, my 3% raise in September 2024 will be based on $30,000, not $30,900.

I mean, a lump sum payment is better than nothing, but it doesn’t help workers in the long run. They’re designed to save employers money in the long run, putting the burden of affording inflation on the backs of the workers.

Oh, and since we’re discussing these 400 workers, I thought I’d point out that when the previous contract was settled, there were 517 workers who it applied to. This employer has reduced its unionized workforce by over 100 workers.