Last month, the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees published an update regarding contract negotiations for workers at Northwestern Polytechnic.
The union represents over 40 non-academic workers at the institution’s campus in Fairview, down from about 100 workers in 2010.
These workers have been without a new contract since their last contract expired a year ago, in June 2024; although bargaining didn’t begin until this past January.
The next bargaining session occurred only last month. At this meeting, the employer tabled their monetary offer, something that doesn’t usually happen until later along in the bargaining process.
Northwestern Polytechnic offered a wage increase of 10% over 4 years.
| 2024 | 3.00% |
| 2025 | 3.00% |
| 2026 | 2.00% |
| 2027 | 2.00% |
The workers’ bargaining team called this offer “extremely disappointing” and “nowhere near enough”.
Take a look at the wage increases in their last two contracts:
| 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% |
That’s a combined 3.75% over 7 years, or an average of 0.54% per year.
Inflation in Alberta during the same period, however, was 22.42%, leaving these workers with a loss in real wages of 18.67%.
A 10% increase is nowhere near enough to make up for a loss of nearly 19% in wages.
And that’s just up until July 2023. We still have 4 more years of inflation to account for, which means even if they got the 10% and real wages were improved to only a loss of 8.67%, it would worsen by the time the new collective agreement expired.
Inflation between July 2023 and July 2024, for example, was 2.65%, which pushes up real wages to a loss of 11.32%, with 3 more years to go!
This is definitely a disappointing offer.
Northwestern Polytechnic should be offering 21.32% (18.67 + 2.65) in just the first year alone if they want to show that they’re serious about making sure the workers can afford to keep up with the increasing cost of living as they try to support themselves and their families.
If they do that, then the 3% and two 2% increases they proposed would seem far more reasonable.
Their next bargaining dates aren’t until October.
(How do I do an eyeroll emoji on here?)
