Town of Cochrane workers get 4% raise

Last month, Alberta Jobs, Economy and Trade published the January 2024 bargaining update, which included all of the new labour contracts that were settled last month.

In it was information on a contract between the Town of Cochrane and Local 987 of the Teamsters.

The workers covered by this new contract include equipment operators employed in parks, utilities, roads, and facilities.

The last contract for these workers expired in December 2022, so this new 4-year contract will be retroactive to January 2023. It expires at the end of 2026.

The bargaining update for this contract provided information on wages only, so I was unable to compare other elements of the new contract, such as benefits, working conditions, and work hours.

These 44 or so workers can expect to see a 1% wage increase in each year of this new contract.

1 January 2023	1%
1 January 2024	1%
1 January 2025	1%
1 January 2026	1%

That’s a combined 4%—well, 4.06% if you account for compound increases.

Here’s what they got in their previous contract:

2018	0.6%
2019	2.0%
2020	2.0%
2021	2.0%
2022	2.0%

That’s a combined increase of 8.89% (compound increases) over the life of that contract.

If we add up all the increases in the previous contract and the two increases in this new contract, we get a combined, compound wage increase of 11.08%

That seems pretty good, right?

Well, let’s check out how much the cost of living has changed during the same period.

In January 2017, the consumer price index of Alberta sat at 137.0. This past December, the most recent month we have data for, it was at 165.6. That’s an increase of 28.6, or 20.88%.

So, over the last 7 years, wages for these workers have increased 11.08%, yet inflation increased at 20.88%, nearly twice as much.

That means the workers saw a reduction in real wages, which is wages adjusted for inflation.

Because inflation was 20.88% over the last 7 years (minus one month), that wage increase of 11.08% was actually a cut to real wages of 9.8%.

In other words, what cost these workers $100 in January 2017 now costs them $109.80, even with the wage increase. To put it another way, that same $100 that they spent on goods and services in January 2017 could get them only $90.20 worth of the same goods and services today.

Even with the two raises expected to come next January and in the beginning of 2026, it still won’t be enough to make up for the 9.8% real wage cut. They’d still be short by over 7%. And that’s assuming inflation doesn’t increase over the next two years, which, of course, is pretty unlikely.

So, a 4% wage increase is certainly better than nothing, but the Town of Cochrane is complicit in making it harder for these workers to live in today’s economic climate.