Whitecourt education workers get 3 years of wage freezes

Earlier this month, the Mediation Services department of Alberta Jobs, Economy, and Trade published their May 2024 Bargaining Update, which includes details on recently settled collective agreements.

One of the agreements was between Local 3705 of the Canadian Union of Public Employees and the Northern Gateway School Division.

Local 3705 of CUPE represents about 44 workers employed in the school division, including administrative assistants, library clerks, teacher assistants, hone liaison workers, and native counsellors.

Based out of Whitecourt, Northern Gateway School Division is a publicly school division covering 24 schools in Whitecourt and the surrounding area, including several school on local Hutterite colonies.

Mediation Services didn’t provide a copy of the new collective agreement, so I won’t be able to comprehensively review all the changes between it and the previous government.

However, the department did provide information on wage increases:

1 Sep 2021	0.00%
1 Sep 2022	0.00%
1 Sep 2023	0.00%
1 Feb 2024	2.75%

That’s a combined 2.75% during the entire life of the new contract, or an average annual increase of 0.69%.

Their previous contract, which expired in August 2021, nearly 3 years ago, gave these workers 2 years of wage freezes and small increases in the subsequent years.

1 Sep 2016	0.00%
1 Sep 2017	0.00%
1 Sep 2018	0.50%
1 Feb 2019	1.00%
1 Sep 2019	0.50%
1 Feb 2020	1.00%
31 Aug 2020	0.25%
1 Sep 2020	0.75%
1 Feb 2021	1.00%
31 Aug 2021	0.25%

That’s a combined 4.75% over a 5-year period, which is less than 1% per year.

This means that since 2016, these workers have received a wage increase of less than 5%, and the single increase in the new contract will bring the total increase for these workers to 7.5% over a combined 8-year period.

In September 2015, the last time these workers received a wage increase prior to their most recent contract, Alberta’s consumer price index sat at 134.6. By April 2024, the latest data we have, it had increased to 168.6.

That’s an increase of 34 points, or 25.26%.

So, during the 8 years that wages for these workers will have increased by 7.5%, inflation grow by more than triple that amount. That means that their real wages—wages adjusted for inflation—actually decreased by 17.76% during the same period.

Keep in mind that some workers covered by this contract were making less than $20 leading into contract negotiations.

Even though these workers have received a raise, it is nowhere near enough to allow them to keep up with the increase to the cost of living.

If they spent $1000 on goods and services in September 2016, those same goods and services would now cost them $1,177.60. Either that or that same $1000 would now allow them to buy only $822.40 worth of goods and services in today’s dollars.

And remember, that’s after accounting for all their raises in the last two contracts.

Oh, and keep in mind that’s just considering inflation up to April. Undoubtedly, there will be even more inflation to take onto that loss.

This new contract will expire in just two months, even though it was settled only on 5 May 2024. That means that the bargaining team will have barely any time to rest from this most recent round of negotiations, which had to go to mediation, before having to begin bargaining on their next contract.

Hopefully the employer doesn’t drag negotiations on for 3 years the next time and will present the workers with a respectful offer for wages.