Last month, the Mediation Services department of Alberta Jobs, Economy, and Trade published the June 2024 Bargaining Update.
This monthly report provides information about the unionized workforce, primarily in Alberta. Last month, Mediation Services received settlement information regarding 30 private sector and 11 public sector bargaining settlements, covering 2,728 and 1,181 workers respectively.
One of those settlements was between the Town of Raymond and Local 70 of the Canadian Union of Provincial Employees.
Their previous contract expired at the end of 2022, and the Town of Raymond and the workers approved this new contract last November, 11 months later.
This new contract applies to about 25 municipal workers employed by the Town of Raymond, the same number it’s been since 2012.
Here’s a look at the pay increases in the new contract, which is retroactive to January 2023.
| 1 January 2023 | 2.00% |
| 1 January 2024 | 2.00% |
| 1 January 2025 | 2.00% |
| 1 January 2026 | 2.50% |
That’s a combined 8.5%, or an annual average of 2.13%.
Their previous contract gave them just 7.5% over 4 years, or 1.88% per year, so this raise is higher.
Between January 2018 and January 2023, the consumer price index in Alberta increased from 138.9 to 160.5. That’s a rise of 21.6, or 15.55%, over the course of the last contract.
That means that these workers ended up with a cut to real wages—wages adjusted for inflation—of 8.05% coming into negotiations.
This new increase of just 8.5% will barely erase the cut to real wages, but that’s over the life of the entire contract, and that’s not considering inflation last year, this year, next year, and in 2026, the last year of the contract. And that’s going to erase the gains they made with this new increase.
For example, inflation between January 2023 and June 2024 has already increased 5.55%, and we’re not even halfway through the new contract.
Here are some of the highlights to other changes in the new contract.
Workers will now be able to request that their unpaid lunch break be reduced from an hour to half an hour.
Standby pay for workers on call shall increase from 1.14 times the normal rate of pay to 1.25 times the rate of pay. As well, the standby pay will now be higher on weekends and holidays (2.5 times)—it was the same as weekdays in the previous contract.
The National Day for Truth and Reconciliation will be recognized as a general holiday.
The new contract switches from weeks to days for annual paid vacation time. For example, workers who had been with the Town of Raymond were eligible for 2 weeks of vacation time in the previous contract but are now eligible for 10 days in the new contract.
As of the new contract, workers who’ve been with the Town of Raymond for under a year will have their vacation time prorated, based on the number of months of employment.
Both of these new changes apply to permanent workers only.
Permanent workers now must be regularly scheduled for 20 hours or more per week to be eligible to participate in the employer’s benefit plan.
As well, workers on an unpaid leave of absence will be responsible for paying 100% of the benefit premiums to the employer to ensure ongoing benefit coverage during their leave.
The previous contract had to categories for bereavement leave, which gave the workers either 3 days or 5 days of leave to attend to the death of a family member, depending on the family member. The new contract combines the two categories with a flat leave of 5 days.
New to the latest contract is leave for bargaining committee members, who will now be permitted to leave work to attend to bargaining responsibilities, and the union will reimburse the employer for wages paid to the workers during that leave.
There were changes to the personal protective equipment section of the contract. Under the previous contract, workers were entitled to a $300 PPE and clothing allowance. That hasn’t changed, but now, the Town of Raymond must provide several PPE items, such as a hard hat, ear protection, rain wear, eye protections, and inhalation protection.
As of the new contract, there will also be a union–employer advisory committee, consisting of 3 workers and 3 employer representatives. This committee will examine and make recommendations regarding concerns of workers relative to collective agreement matters.
There were also some changes to language to make it more gender inclusive and less grammatically awkward (such as replacing his/her with their).
