Earlier this week, the Alberta Union of Public Employees published an update regarding contract negotiations for the workers they represent who are employed by the University of Calgary.
These more than 5,000 workers are non-faculty support staff provide technical, administrative, trades, and programme support services for students, faculty, and administration at the university.
Their most recent contract with the U of C expired about two months ago, at the end of March.
Negotiations between the two parties didn’t begin until 27 March, less than a week before the contract expired. The two parties met again on 11 April and exchanged non-monetary proposals.
In this most recent update, the workers’ bargaining team indicated that they met with the university’s team at the beginning of May. At this meeting, the two parties presented their monetary proposals.
The U of C has proposed a 4-year contract with the following wage increases:
| Year 1 | 2.00% |
| Year 2 | 2.00% |
| Year 3 | 1.75% |
| Year 4 | 1.75% |
That’s a combined increase of 7.5%—or 7.71% if you account for compound increases. That works out to 1.93% per year, on average.
The workers’ bargaining team responded with much larger increases and only a 3-year contract.
| Year 1 | 13.00% |
| Year 2 | 6.50% |
| Year 3 | 6.50% |
This is a combined 26% increase. It increases to 28.17% when factoring compound increases over the previous year. That would result in a 9.39% average increase per year.
That may seem like a lot at first glance, and way out of touch with what the University of Calgary is asking for, but keep in mind that these workers have had several years of wage freezes.
In fact, last year was the first time since 2017 that these workers have received a raise.
Since 2017, wages for these more than 5,000 workers has increased by 5.1%, according to the AUPE. During that same period, inflation has increased by 24.4%. These workers have seen a cut to real wages of nearly 20% over the last 7 years!
Their proposal is trying to make up for the 19.3% lost increases, and then using the remaining 8.87% to cover inflation for the life of the contract, which would average out to less than 3% per year.
Negotiations resumed yesterday, and the two parties will be meeting today as well. Bargaining in June is currently set for the 12th and 13th.
The bargaining team representing the U of C workers includes Stephanie Hawes, a senior administrative assistant with the Cumming School of Medicine; Barbara McCutcheon, a scheduling coordinator in Student and Enrollment Services; Dave Latos, an admissions specialist in Student Enrollment Services; Paulette Harrison, a technician in the biology department; and Peter Gimby, a technician team lead in the physics and astronomy department.
