Last 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. In July, 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 nearly 300 workers employed by Suncor at the company’s refinery in Strathcona County, near Edmonton.
Through their labour as technicians, pumpers, craftspersons, coke operators, maintenance crews, and loaders, these workers help the refinery process over 140,000 barrels of bitume every day into gasoline, diesel, jet fuel and aviation gasoline. They are represented by Local 501A of Unifor.
They had been without a new contract since their previous one expired in January 2023. The workers and the employers finally settled on a new contract just this past January, a year later.
The new 3-year contract is retroactive to the beginning of 2023 and will expire in January 2026. It includes wage increases, the first being retroactive.
| 1 February 2023 | 5.0% |
| 1 February 2024 | 3.5% |
| 1 February 2025 | 3.5% |
That works out to a combined increase of 12% per year, or 12.48% if you account for compound increases. The annual average is 4.16%.
This is much better than the increases they received in their previous contract, which averaged 2.94% per year.
| 1 February 2019 | 2.50% |
| 1 February 2020 | 2.75% |
| 1 February 2021 | 3.00% |
| 1 February 2022 | 3.50% |
These new increases will help these workers respond to the rising cost of living as they try to support themselves and their families. This is also similar to raises received by workers at the nearby Imperial refinery and who are also represented by Unifor.
The consumer price index in Alberta in February 2018 was 139.7. By January 2023, it had increased 20.8 points to 160.5, a 14.89% jump.
That left the workers with a cut to real wages—wages adjusted for inflation—of 2.61% by the end of their last contract. The increases in the first two years of the new contract will help make up for that real wage cut, as well as cover inflation over the last two years, which has increased 5.55% in the year and a half since January 2023.
Hopefully the final 2 increases will cover inflation the rest of this year, as well as the final year of the contract. Inflation for the first half of 2024 has already been 2.71%.
Here are some highlights of other changes in the new contract.
Workers will see an increase in shift premiums. These are for workers assigned to a 7-day continuous operation and rotate on either a three 8-hour basis or a two 12-hour basis.
| 8-hour day | 8-hour evening | 8-hour night | 12-hour day | 12-hour night | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | $1.05 | $2.07 | $3.57 | $1.36 | $3.07 |
| 2023 | $1.10 | $2.17 | $3.75 | $1.43 | $3.22 |
| 2024 | $1.14 | $2.25 | $3.88 | $1.48 | $3.33 |
| 2025 | $1.18 | $2.33 | $4.02 | $1.53 | $3.45 |
Shift premiums will also increase for day workers.
| Evening | Overnight | |
|---|---|---|
| 2022 | $2.08 | $2.53 |
| 2023 | $2.18 | $3.71 |
| 2024 | $2.26 | $3.84 |
| 2025 | $2.34 | $3.97 |
Two more positions have been added to the premium for supervisors and coordinators, who get $5.50 an hour when performing supervisory or coordnating duties. The new positions getting this premium are construction coordinator and production coordinator.
National Day for Truth & Reconciliation has been added to the list of recognized holidays.
The lead pumper apprentice programme has been reduced from 24 months to 18 months, which will allow workers to become lead pumper more quickly.
