Earlier this month, the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees published an update regarding contract negotiations for workers employed by the University of Lethbridge.
AUPE represents over 500 non-academic workers at the U of L, including caretakers, lifeguards, groundskeepers, maintenance workers, administrative support, IT workers, library workers, and various technicians, analysts, and specialists.
These workers have been working off an expired collective agreement for 2 years, since June 2024.
Negotiations on the new contract began a month after the expiration, in July 2024, despite the U of L receiving notice from the workers at the beginning of April 2024 that they wanted to begin bargaining.
The two parties signed off on over 20 non-monetary items back in the summer of 2024, which are usually easier to negotiate, so parties typically take care of them first.
As far as monetary items go, the University of Lethbridge refused to propose any. They claimed at the time that they normally want to finish all the non-monetary negotiations first.
It took the university nearly a year until they tabled their monetary offer. In May 2025, they told the bargaining team representing the workers that they were prepared to offer 10% over 4 years.
That is despite the fact that public sector collective agreements across Alberta were increasingly being ratified with 12% over 4 years.
And it was a long ways off from the 26.05% over 3 years that the workers wanted back in 2024.
The bargaining team—which includes a library technical specialist, an academic advisor, an admissions specialist, a power engineer, and an electrician—asked for 13% in the first year, 6.5% in the second, and 6.55% in the final year.
That might seem a lot, but keep in mind that since 2017, they have received only a 3.8% increase, while inflation passed the 24% mark, leaving them with a cut to real wages of 20.6%.
| 2017 | 0.00% |
| 2018 | 0.00% |
| 2019 | 1.00% |
| 2020 | 0.00% |
| 2021 | 0.00% |
| 2022 | 0.00% |
| 2023 | 3.80% |
| 2024 | 0.00% |
A 26.05% increase would have eliminated that 20.6% real wage gap, leaving 5.45% to cover inflation in the final two years of the agreement. That seems pretty reasonable.
The University of Lethbridge refused to move on their initial offer. According to the workers’ bargaining team, the negotiators for the university said at their 17 April meeting that “they needed more time to consult with their principals before responding to our proposals”.
Well, I guess “their principals” changed their mind because the update from earlier this month indicated that the two parties have reached a tentative agreement, include a slightly larger combined increase.
| Year 1 | 3.00% |
| Year 2 | 3.00% |
| Year 3 | 3.00% |
| Year 4 | 3.00% |
| 12.00% |
While it is better than the 10% the U of L wanted, it still falls short of covering the entire 20.6% cut to real wages I mentioned earlier., so these workers will still be behind the cost of living.
Here are some other highlights from the proposed agreement.
Workers who have been with the U of L for 20 years would be entitled to an additional 2% raise. That would have been me had the university not laid me off in 2010 as a result in the provincial government freezing operational grants.
Personal days under the proposed agreement would increase from 2 days to 3 days.
The flex spending account would increases from $1,150 per year to $1,200 per year.
There would ba a new $250 benefit that workers can use to cover the costs of vaccines. After all, not all vaccines are covered by Alberta’s public health plan. Shingles, for example, is not covered, which is wild.
The two parties, if the agreement is ratified, would establish a joint review committee to exploring reducing workdays to 7 hours per day for workers who are currently doing at least 7.5 hours per day.
A town hall meeting took place last night, and another one will take place tonight. The workers’ bargaining team plans to use these meetings to explain the changes and answer any questions workers have.
Voting on the agreement will begin next Monday (29th) and run until 3 July.
