Sherwood Park factory workers get 8.5% raise

Earlier this month, the Mediation Services department of Alberta Jobs, Economy, and Trade published the July 2024 Bargaining Update.

This monthly report provides information about the unionized workforce, primarily in Alberta. Last month, Mediation Services received settlement information regarding 26 private sector and 10 public sector bargaining settlements, covering 2,032 and 6,698 workers respectively.

One of those settlements was for about 50 workers employed by Advance Tank Centres.

Based out of Sherwood Park, Advance Tank Centres specializes in parts and service for tanker trailers.

The workers include welders, millwrights, mechanic, switch truck drivers, and general labourers. They are represented by the Advance Tank Centres Employees Association.

The previous collective agreement between the two parties expired this past May. The workers and the employers settled on a new 3-year contract just 3 days before the old one expired.

Included in the new contract are wage increase every year

12 May 2024	2.75%
11 May 2025	2.75%
10 May 2026	3.00%

That works out to a combined increase of 8.5% per year, or 8.74% if you account for compound increases. The annual average is 2.91%.

Going into negotiations, some workers were making only $16.37 an hour, which is less than $35,000 a year for full-time work. By the end of the contract, that will have increased to $17.80 an hour. Keep in mind that as of July 2024, the median hourly wage in Alberta is $30 an hour.

That being said, the highest paid workers—journey-level welders with a pressure ticket—will be making $47.17 an hour by the end of the contract.

Their last contract saw 3% per year, so the annual average in this contract is pretty close to that, although slightly under.

The consumer price index in Alberta in May 2021 was 148.6. By May 2024, it had increased 20.5 points to 169.1, a 13.8% jump.

That left the workers with a cut to real wages—wages adjusted for inflation—of 7.8% by the end of their last contract. The increases in the new contract will help make up for that real wage cut, but it gives them only about 1 percentage point to cover inflation this year, next year, and in 2026.

As a result, by the end of this new contract, these workers will likely be left with another cut to real wages.

Here are some highlights of other changes in the new contract.

The employer will now cover 100% of the cost of safety boots, up from 75% in the previous contract, to a maximum of $250 a year. The maximum was $200 in the previous contract.

Under the previous contract, workers who had been with the company for 10 years would be entitled to 4 weeks paid vacation time each year. Now, workers qualify for this after just 8 years of employment.