Earlier this month, the Mediation Services department of Alberta Jobs, Economy, Trade, and Immigration published their December 2025 Bargaining Update.
The monthly report provides information about Alberta’s unionized workforce, primarily collective agreement settlement information the department received in December 2025.
Last month, Mediation Services received settlement information regarding 40 bargaining relationships encompassing 21,601 employees. Of those relationships, 17 were in the private sector and 23 were in the public sector, covering 2,128 and 19,473 employees respectively.
One of those collective agreements was for about 30 workers employed by Harvest Operations Corp.
Based out of Calgary, Harvest Operations is actually a wholly-owned subsidiary of Korea National Oil Corporation. Their workers provide exploration, development, and production services in the bitumen mining sector, as well as in conventional oil and gas.
This collective agreement is for all workers employed by Harvest Operations—except those in office or clerical positions—at the company’s BlackGold bitumen mine, a steam-assisted gravity drainage operation near Conklin, Alberta.
These workers include power engineers, instrument technicians, millwrights, electricians, and warehouse technicians. They are members of Local 707-A of Unifor.
They have been unionized since November 2024, and this is their first collective agreement. It was settled this past November and expires in March of next year.
The new agreement brings two wage increases. The first raise came last month, 1.7% to harmonize trade rates, which will be classified as a craft person rate. The second increase is 3% and will come this April.
By the end of the collective agreement, 5 position classifications will have a base pay rate of $70 an hour or higher, compared to just 2 positions at the start of the agreement.
Since this is a first agreement, there is nothing to compare it, too, to see what benefits they gained, so I will just highlight some of the notable benefits.
Harvest Operations has agreed to pay into a special fund that will provide paid education leave. They will contribute 5¢ per compensated hour for each worker.
The collective agreement prohibits discrimination and harassment based on sex, colour, national origin, religion, age, marital status,
sexual orientation, or disability.
If Harvest Operations plans to implement technology that will result in layoffs or change in pay, they must notify Unifor of the change 4 months in advance of implementation. Same goes for permanent closure of the entire operation or even any part of it that would result in a permanent workforce reduction.
Severance pay will be 2 weeks of pay, plus an additional 2 weeks for every year of service with the company multiplied by 1.2.
Bereavement leave is paid and maxes out at 3 days. It is available to workers who are dealing with the death of a spouse or common-law partner, parent (including parent’s partner), child (including step and in-law), sibling (including step and in-law), grandparent (including in-law), grandchild (including step), aunt, uncle, or nibling.
Workers get paid time off for jury duty or to appear as a witness.
Maternity leave maxes out at 16 weeks and parental leave is up to 62 weeks, which is also the length of other parental leaves, such as adoption.
Domestic violence leave is 7 working days, but only 3 of which will be paid leave.
Sick leave is 40 hours per calendar year and cannot be carried over into the following year.
Overtime is paid out at double the worker’s regular pay rate.
The following 11 holidays are considered stutory holidays in the collective agreement:
- New Year’s Day
- Family Day
- Good Friday
- Victoria Day
- Canada Day
- Heritage Day
- Labour Day
- Thanksgiving Day
- Remembrance Day
- Christmas Day
- Boxing Day
Workers who have been with the company for under 9 years are entitled to 2 weeks of paid vacation. This increases to 3 weeks once the worker hits the 9-year mark.
Anyone working at the BlackGold site qualifies for a camp allowance of 15% of the base salary for shift and craft leads and 10% for everyone else.
As well, workers stationed at the BlackGold site may qualify for travel allowance, if their principal home location is a certain distance from the site.
| Principal home location | Per rotation |
|---|---|
| British Columbia | $550 |
| Calgary | $100 |
| 150+ kms from YYC | $450 |
| Edmonton | $100 |
| 150+ kms from YEG | $450 |
| Saskatchewan | $550 |
| Manitoba | $550 |
Workers with a steam ticket will get a ticket allowance, the amount of which depends on the class level.
| Third class | $6,000 |
| Second class | $10,000 |
| First class | $15,000 |
Harvest Operations has agreed to provide a $500 health spending account every year. Any remaining amounts in a worker’s account may be carried over for just 1 year.
They have also agreed to provide a $500 health and wellness account.
The employer will contribute the equivalent of 3% of a worker’s base salary into a group retirement programme. They have also agreed to contribute an additional 2% but only if the workers matches it.
