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 500 of the United Utility Workers’ Association and AltaLink Management Ltd.
Local 500 of UUWA represents about 360 workers employed AltaLink throughout Alberta. These workers include various types of analysts, power line technicians, equipment operators, electricians, coordinators, technologists, and technicians.
Based out of Calgary, AltaLink is Alberta’s largest regulated electricity transmission provider. They are owned by the US-holding firm Berkshire Hathaway Inc. and provide electricity to 85% of Alberta residents through over 13,000 kilometres of their transmission lines.
The previous contract between the two parties expired at the end of 2023. Their new contract, which was only settled on 6 May 2024, will run for 4 years, expiring at the end of 2027.
Mediation Services hasn’t yet made the new collective agreement public yet, so I can’t do a comprehensive comparison of the two contracts.
They did, however, provide information on the 4 wage increases these workers are set to receive, with the first one being retroactive.
| 1 Jan 2024 | 3.00% |
| 1 Jan 2025 | 4.25% |
| 1 Jan 2026 | 3.75% |
| 1 Jan 2027 | 3.00% |
That’s a combined 14%, or an annual average of 3.5%.
That’s significantly more than they received in their previous contract, which lasted for only two years with a 2.25% increase in the first year and 3.0% in the second year, for an annual average of 2.63%.
Keep in mind that in January 2021, the last time these workers received a raise prior to their most recent agreement, the consumer price index in Alberta sat at 145.8. This past January, it had increased by 20.1 points to 165.9.
That is a 13.79% jump in 3 years.
Wage increases in the previous increase, combined with the first increase in the new contract, retroactive to 1 January 2024, totalled just 8.25%, which falls about 5.5 points below inflation.
Next year’s raise of 4.25% will almost make up the difference, but remember that we will likely have additional inflation this year. In fact, between January and May of this year (the most recent data we have), inflation is already at 1.93%.
Between the two contracts, workers are set to receive a 19.25% increase to wages between the beginning of 2022 and the end of 2027, or 20.85% if we account for compound increases.
When we subtract 13.79% inflation between January 2021 and January 2024, we’re left with an increase of just over 7% to help these workers respond to inflation this year, next year, and in the final two years of the contract.
Considering that one-year inflation in each of the last 3 Januarys has been above 3%, the odds don’t seem to be in the workers’ favour. Unless economy improves soon.
