AUPE members ratify new contract with province after 'challenging' bargaining

Alberta government employees represented by the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees have ratified a new collective agreement that extends job security for permanent employees to the end of 2022 and offers small pay raises in the final 15 months of the agreement. 

The agreement, ratified by 96 per cent of AUPE members who voted, will provide employees with a 1.25 per cent salary on Jan. 1, 2023, and a 1.5 per cent increase on Sept. 1, 2023. Workers could get an additional 0.5 per cent increase on the latter date depending on economic factors. 

About 46 per cent of eligible workers voted on the new contract. AUPE represents 22,000 Government of Alberta employees covered by the contract. 

AUPE president Guy Smith said bargaining for this collective agreement was the most challenging for the union in about 25 to 30 years. 

"We've never seen so many concessions on the table at the beginning and throughout bargaining as we saw this time around," Smith said in an interview with CBC News. 

"And I think forcing the employer off those concessions was really a major goal and then obviously making some gains on top of that."

Early in the negotiation, government negotiators offered public service employees a four per cent wage rollback. They also wanted concessions on pay for overtime, shift differentials and weekend premiums. 

In October 2020, provincial negotiators informed the union that 930 job cuts were on the table. A mediator became involved in March after talks broke down. 

Finance Minister Travis Toews said in a statement on Monday that the agreement recognizes the province's "long-term economic outlook." 

"Our goal has always been to bring spending in line with other provinces, and this deal accomplishes that goal," Toews said. 

"I am hopeful that other public sector unions will look to this successful process, and that bargaining will proceed constructively across the broader public sector."

Smith suspects a number of factors prompted the government to walk back its demand for concessions. AUPE members were prepared to strike, if required, and the government didn't want to face widespread labour unrest, Smith said. 

 "They knew we were serious," Smith said. "This government is struggling and the premier is struggling, and I think that they didn't want to engage in a fight that they may not have won." 

The deal comes as the province's finances are buoyed by high world oil prices. The second-quarter financial update projects Alberta will end the fiscal year with a deficit of $5.8 billion, much lower than the $18.2 billion forecasted in the February budget.