Last week, the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees published an update regarding contract negotiations for workers employed by NorQuest College.
NorQuest is a community college in Edmonton provides diplomas and certificate programmes in health, community studies, and business.
The more than 400 AUPE members employed by NorQuest include clerks, technicians, administrative assistants, social workers, analysts, instructional assistants, nurses, advisors, specialists, and administrators.
Their previous contract expired over a year and a half ago, in June 2024.
Bargaining on the new contract began at the end of July 2024; however most of the bargaining over the next year focused on non-monetary items.
Negotiating on wages did not start until this past September, when NorQuest offered 10% over 4 years.
| 2024 | 3.00% |
| 2025 | 3.00% |
| 2026 | 2.00% |
| 2027 | 2.00% |
This is less than what workers have received in other postsecondary institutions in Alberta. For example, Alberta University of the Arts, Bow Valley College, Grant MacEwan University, Keyano College, Lakeland College, and Northwestern Polytechnic all gave their faculty 12% over 4 years in new collective agreements in 2025.
Even NorQuest College itself gave its faculty 12% over 4 years.
When NorQuest made their initial offer, the workers’ bargaining team—which includes 2 lab instructors and a site administrator—called it “far less than what we deserve”.
According to an update published last month, that wage offer eventually increased to 12% over 4 years, with 3% each year.
Now, 12% might seem significant, but look at what wage increases looked like since getting a raise in 2016.
| 1 July 2017 | 0.00% |
| 1 July 2018 | 0.00% |
| 1 July 2019 | 1.00% |
| 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% |
Over their last 2 collective agreements, these workers received a combined 3.75%. That is an average of 0.54% per year.
Meanwhile, during the same period, inflation in Alberta increased by 22.42%, more than 6 times what they got for wage increases.
This means that after two contracts and 5 years of wage freezes, these workers were left with a cut to real wages of 18.67%. Even with the 12% increase , they are still holding a real wage cut of 6.67%.
And remember, that 12% is over 4 years. Obviously, inflation will increase during that period, too. In fact, between July 2023 and July 2025, inflation had already increased by 3.98%, which causes our real wage cut to jump up to 10.65%, with two more years still to go.
Hopefully their next contract will see wage increases sufficient to make up for these lost wages.
Last week’s update reported that the majority of workers voted to ratify the tentative agreement that was announced in December, with 92% of participants voting in favour of ratification.
Here are some other changes that were ratified in this new agreement.
Bands 1 through 3 were removed in the wage grid, which effectively increases the starting wage to $23.56 an hour.
The health spending account has increased from $747 to $1000 a year.
Vacation time has improved for workers who have been with NorQuest for at least 5 years.
| Vacation length | Length of service old | Length of service new |
|---|---|---|
| 15 days | 1–6 years | 1–5 years |
| 20 days | 6–14 years | 5–12 years |
| 25 days | 14–23 years | 12–21 years |
| 30 days | 23+ years | 21+ years |
National Day of Truth and Reconciliation is now a paid day off.
Workers will now be reimbursed for the full cost of sick notes. This was not explicitly stated in the previous collective agreement.
The new collective agreement is backdated to July 2024, which includes retroactive backpay for the wage increases in July 2024 and July 2025.
