Last month, the Mediation Services department of Alberta Jobs, Economy, and Trade published the November 2024 Bargaining Update.
This monthly report provides information about the unionized workforce, primarily in Alberta. In November, Mediation Services received settlement information regarding 20 private sector and 11 public sector bargaining settlements, covering 2,841 and 4,096 workers respectively.
Among those settlements was a contract for about 65 workers employed by GATX Rail Canada.
These workers are represented by Local 21A of Unifor.
Based out of the United States, CATX specializes in railcar leasing and maintenance. They have locations throughout Europe, India, and North America, including Calgary, Edmonton, and Red Deer.
The workers at the Red Deer service facility represented in this contract include everyone except managers, supervisors, chief clerks, and secretaries.
To be more specific, they are car repairers, clerks, lead hands, inspectors, and clerk leaders. These workers are responsible for the cleaning, repair, lining, and painting of the tank and freight cars that arrive in the facility.
The previous contract for the workers expired about a year ago, in January 2024. The new contract was settled about 6 months later, in July 2024; although Mediation Services only recently received a copy.
According to the bargaining update, these workers are set to get wage increases in each year of the new 4-year contract, which expires in January 2028.
| Bed In Box | |
|---|---|
| 9 January 2024 | 5% |
| 9 January 2025 | 3% |
| 9 January 2026 | 3% |
| 9 January 2027 | 3% |
Over the course of the new contract, these workers will receive a combined wage increase of 14%, or 14.74% if you account for compounding increases.
That averages out to 3.5% (3.68%) per year.
This is better than the raises they got their last contract:
| Bed In Box | |
|---|---|
| 9 January 2020 | 2.0% |
| 9 January 2021 | 2.0% |
| 9 January 2022 | 2.5% |
| 9 January 2023 | 3.0% |
That was a total of 9.5%, or an average of 2.38% per year.
The consumer price index for Alberta changed from 140.5 in January 2019 to 160.5 in January 2023. This increase of 20 points represented a 14.23% increase.
With inflation at 14.23% but wages increases at just 9.5% in their last contract, these workers saw their real wages—wages adjusted for inflation—drop by 4.73%.
The 5% raise in the first year will make up for that loss, but that means these workers will be left with 0.27% to cover inflation between January 2023 and January 2024, which was 3.36%. Which means the 3% raise they got earlier this month would be insufficient in covering the 3.09% from last year, let alone the inflation for 2024, which was already 2.59% as of November.
As of this month, they’re still 2.68% behind inflation, even with the two new raises. The 6% in remaining raises should cover that, but they also need to cover the remaining inflation in 2024, all the inflation this year, and all the inflation next year.
If inflation drops significantly this year and next, they could break even, but that is seeming unlikely as time moves on.
Here are some changes between the previous contract and the new contract.
New workers will now participate in a 20-minute, in-person union orientation presented by a union representative. The orientation will be during work hours. This was not in the previous contract.
Also new to their collective agreement, union representatives will meet with employer representatives every quarter to discuss issues, including grievances.
The no discrimination policy has been expanded to include sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, marital status, family status, ancestry, perceived race, religion, and nationality (although it used to include national origin).
A new policy was added to the collective agreement for workers returning from a medical leave of absence. The employer has agreed to provide a list of the physical demand requirements of the job of a worker wanting to return to work, which the worker’s healthcare provider can then evaluate. If a workers is away from work for more than 30 days because of an off-work injury, they must take a work physical before returning to work.
Under the previous collective agreement, there was a 3-step process for filing grievances. If a worker was unhappy with the outcome of the first step (which involves the worker’s supervisor), they had 2 days to take it to the service centre manager. That has been extended to 5 days now. As well, the employer has agreed to provide copies of relevant documentation the worker or the union representatives request.
Similarly, if workers were unhappy with the outcome of step 2, they had 10 days to notify the company that they intended to file for arbitration, which was the third step in the process. This has been lengthened to 14 days, and they’ve added another in-firm reviewer: senior human resources representative. The hope is to try reaching a resolution prior to arbitration.
Arbitration has been moved to step 4, and workers have 21 days to notify the employer that they intend to file for arbitration.
Speaking of arbitration, the new contract expands on the process for submitting a joint statement of issue for the arbitration board. As well, they’re moving away from an arbitration board to a sole arbitrator. The employer selects 3 nominees for arbitrator and the workers will also select 3 nominees. The nominees will then choose the sole arbitrator. If they can’t agree on a selection, then they will ask the provincial labour minister to appoint an independent arbitrator.
There were 8 reasons in the previous contract that might cause a worker might lost their seniority. A 9th one was added in the new contract: they have exhausted all benefits under the employer’s sickness and disability plan, exhausted all benefits under workers compensation, are unable to return to work due to permanent restrictions, and have exhausted the duty to accommodate process.
New to the collective agreement is a maintenance of certification and qualifications programme, which will help workers maintain their professional qualifications or certifications.
The boot allowance has increased from $160 per year to $250 per year.
The shift differential has increased from $1.10 an hour to $1.50 an hour for the afternoon and night shifts.
A 4-day, 10-hour workweek has been added to the new collective agreement.
The long-term disability income insurance monthly benefit will increase from $1,750 to $2,750.
If the provincial government implements health care premiums, the company will cover half the cost, down from 100% as of 2023.
