Last month, the Mediation Services department of Alberta Jobs, Economy, and Trade published the September–October 2024 Bargaining Update.
This monthly report provides information about the unionized workforce, primarily in Alberta. In the months of September and October, Mediation Services received settlement information regarding 36 private sector and 31 public sector bargaining settlements, covering 3,408 and 4,855 workers respectively.
Among those settlements was a contract for about 60 bus drivers employed by the Prairie Land School Division.
These workers are represented by Local 955 of the International Union of Operating Engineers.
Based out of the community of Hannah, Prairie Land School Division oversees schools in Altario. Cessford, Consort, Delia, Morrin, Veteran, Vulcan, Youngstown, and, of course, Hannah. It is also responsible for schools on several Huttterite colonies in the region and two Islamic schools in Calgary.
Their previous contract expired 31 August 2024. The new contract was settled just 3 days prior..
These bus drivers are set to get wage increases in each year of the new 4-year contract, which expires in August 2028.
| 1 September 2024 | 2.00% |
| 1 September 2025 | 2.00% |
| 1 September 2026 | 1.75% |
| 1 September 2027 | 1.75% |
This works out to a combined wage of 7.50% over the the life of the contract, averaging out to 1.88% per year.
It’s also much better than the 2.75% they got in their last contract.
| 1 September 2020 | 0.00% |
| 1 September 2021 | 0.00% |
| 1 September 2022 | 0.00% |
| 1 September 2023 | 1.25% |
| 1 February 2024 | 1.50% |
Clearly, 3 years of wage freezes means these workers have seen their real wages—wages adjusted for inflation—drop during this time.
Inflation between September 2019 and September 2023 increased by 16.17%.
During that same period, wages increased only 1.25%, leaving a cut to real wages of 14.92%. That means that the 1.5% this past February and the 7.5% in this new contract won’t be enough to make up for the loss in real wages—they’ll still be nearly 6% short. Plus, that’s not even counting the inflation over the life of this new contract.
I mean, inflation between September 2023 and September 2024 is just shy of 2%, so we’re already back up to almost 8%, with 3 more years to go.
Here are some highlights of other changes between the new contract and their previous contract.
The bus drivers are paid a premium for each kilometre they drive on their route above 80 kilometres each day. The premium will increase from 43.5¢ to 44¢ this year, 45¢ next year, 46¢ in 2026, and 47¢ in the final year. Previous contracts had incremental increases of under a penny per kilometre.
In addition to the wage increase, the drivers will see a combined 7.5% increase over the life of the contract to their experience allowance: an annual allowance drivers get after they’ve been with the school division for 3 years.
The plug-in allowance has increased from $477.49 per year to $600 per year, paid to drivers for plugging in their buses when overnight temperatures fall below 5° C.
The responsibility allowance will also see a 7.5% increase over the life of the contract, similar to the wage and experience allowance increases. How much each driver gets depends on the seating capacity of their bus.
Drivers will see a similar increase (7.5%) for paid leave they receive for meeting with the employer outside of normal hours of work or completing first aid or S endorsement training.
The accumulation of sick leave maxes out at 40 days for all drivers. It used to be 20 days for anyone hired after October 2006.
