Over a year and a half ago, roughly 120 workers employed with Compass Group saw their most recent collective agreement expire.
Compass Group, operating under their brand Eurest Dining Services, is a Singapore-based company specializing in end-to-end corporate catering services, including events catering and office cleaning.
These workers are represented by Local 401 of the United Food and Commercial Workers and include all Eurest workers except unit managers, office workers, and clerical workers employed at 7 correction centres in Alberta:
- Calgary Correctional Centre
- Calgary Remand Centre
- Calgary Young Offenders Centre
- Edmonton Remand Centre
- Edmonton Young Offenders Centre
- Fort Saskatchewan Correctional Centre
- Lethbridge Correctional Centre
They include cook supervisors, cook assistants, and general help.
In an update posted to Local 401’s website this past January, the 6-person bargaining committee for these workers indicated that they had met with the employer in November and December of last year to exchange proposals.
During those sessions, the two parties were able to “make progress on various non-monetary items”. The workers’ bargaining committee had also offered an opening monetary proposal.
They were scheduled to meet with the employer again in February, but the next update didn’t come until August, 6 months later.
By this time, the company still hadn’t supplied their final offer, even though it’d be nearly a year and a half since the contract had expired. They did provide an offer, which included the following wage increases:
| Year 1 | 3.00% |
| Year 2 | 3.00% |
| Year 3 | 2.50% |
| Year 4 | 2.50% |
That’s a combined 11%, or an average of 2.75% per year.
Here’s how that compares to their previous contract.
| Year 1 | 1.75% |
| Year 2 | 1.75% |
| Year 3 | 2.00% |
| Year 4 | 2.00% |
This works out to 7.50 over 4 years, or an average annual increase of 1.88%.
Compass’s August 2024 proposal is significantly higher than what they received in their last contract, but let’s look at even more context.
In April 2018, the last time these workers received a raise before their most recent contract, the consumer price index in Alberta sat at 140.6. By the time 5 years had gone by, in April 2023, it had increased to 163.7.
That’s a jump of 23.1 points, or 16.43%.
So, during their last contract, these workers saw their wages increase by 7.5%, but inflation grew by 16.43%, more than twice as much. This means that these workers saw a cut to real wages—wages adjusted for inflation—of 8.93%.
The 11% increase proposed by Compass for the new contract will easily be enough to cover that shortfall of nearly 9%, but that’s just for inflation in the last contract.
Only 2.07% would remain of this new wage increase after making up for the loss in real wages. Inflation between April 2023 and April 2024 alone was 2.99%, and we still have 3 more years of inflation ahead of us.
So, while 11% is enough to bring wages up to inflation as of April 2023, it won’t be enough to cover the shortfall and cover inflation increases during the new contract.
And that’s why the workers’ bargaining committee responded with a much higher offer:
| Year 1 | 6.00% |
| Year 2 | 6.00% |
| Year 3 | 5.50% |
| Year 4 | 5.50% |
This comes to a combined 23% over 4 years. This would allow the workers to catch up to their nearly 9% in lost wages, leaving them with a little over 14% to cover inflation over the next 4 years, giving them an average of 3.52% per year.
That seems far more reasonable.
The employer also proposed increasing the longevity bonus from 10¢ an hour for those who’ve been with the company between 5 and 10 years and 15¢ for those over 10 years to 15¢ and 20¢, respectively.
The union, however, proposed a much more aggressive plan, and called it a long-term service premium:
| Length of service | Premium |
|---|---|
| 3–5 years | $0.50 per hour |
| 5–10 years | $1.00 per hour |
| 10–15 years | $1.50 per hour |
| 15–20 years | $2.00 per hour |
| 20–25 years | $2.75 per hour |
| 25+ years | $3.00 per hour |
According to the workers’ bargaining committee, the employer responded to the counteroffer by saying that “they could not provide another counter”.
The two parties met again last month, and ultimately, Local 401 presented what had been proposed to that date to the members, who then had a chance to vote on it.
In an update published on the Local 401 website earlier this week, the bargaining committee said that of those who participated in the ratification vote, 70% rejected the contract proposed by Compass Group.
It’s now up to the employer to consider what to do next. They can get back to the bargaining table with an offer that’s fair for the workers, or they can go to mediation.
Either way, the workers made it clear that what the company proposed is too little.
