In the August 2025 Bargaining Update released earlier this month, Alberta’s jobs, economy, trade, and immigration ministry indicated that a new collective agreement for construction workers had been reached.
Settled on 29 July 2025, the new agreement is between Standard General and Local 92 of the Construction and General Workers’ Union, otherwise known as Labourers’ International Union of North America or just LiUNA.
LiUNA 92 was negotiating on behalf of about 45 utility construction workers employed by Standard General, including pipelayers, manhole builders, topmen, foremen, and general labourers.
Owned by the French-based Colas SA, Standard General has two locations in Alberta. Their Calgary operations, where these workers are stationed, focus on road building and land development.
The new 3-year agreement replaces the previous agreement, which just expired in March 2025, and will expire in March 2028. This is only the second collective agreement they have ratified since unionizing in November 2023.
Construction workers covered by this new agreement can expect to see 3 wage increases during the life of the contract.
| 1 April 2025 | 1.80% |
| 1 April 2026 | 2.00% |
| 1 April 2027 | 2.00% |
That’s a combined total increase of 5.8%, or an average annual increase of 1.93%. They got 3% over 2 years in their last contract, averaging 1.5% per year.
By the end of this new contract, labourers—the lowest-paid workers affected by this contract—will be making $23.09 an hour, up from $21.81 an hour at the end of the last contract.
Here are some highlights of other changes in the new collective agreement.
A clause was added to the collective agreement that stated wage increases would be retroactive to 1 April 2025, regardless of the actual ratification date.
2.05 The parties agree and acknowledge that all wage and rate increases outlined herein shall be paid retroactive (based on the gross rate, inclusive of Holiday and Vacation Pay, Pension and Health and Welfare) to the effective date of April 1, 2025 regardless of the date of signing or ratification of this Agreement, however the parties specifically agree and acknowledge that the change to the overtime threshold (from 44 hours to 40 hours shall not be applied retroactively and shall only apply commencing on ratification of this Agreement by the Employees (and for clarity, commencing no earlier than August 4, 2025).
Under the previous agreement, workers were paid time-and-a-half for all hours worked over 8 hours per day or 44 hours per week, whichever was greater. The weekly threshold has been reduced to 40 hours.
The new contract introduces a boot allowance, which will be $150 per calendar year and available to workers who have worked at least 700 hours in a calendar year.
A shift premium is also new to the collective agreement. Any workers who work a second shift that begins at 16:00 or later will be paid an additional $3.50 an hour for all hours worked on that shift.
Standard General has agreed to pay $2.24 an hour per workers to the Labourers’ Health and Welfare Trust Fund of Western Canada, up from $2.09 an hour in the last contract. This will increase to $2.39 next April and to $2.54 in April 2027.
They also agreed to increase the contribution to the Labourers’ Pension Trust Fund of Western Canada. They had been paying $2 an hour by the end of their previous contract, which increases to $2.25 this year, $2.50 next year, and $2.75 in the final year of the new contract.
