loading . . . Road maintenance workers going to mediation Last week, the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees published an update on their website regarding contract negotiations for road maintenance workers.
These 500 or so workers are employed by Emcon Services.
The company is the largest road maintenance contractor in Canada, and they are responsible for maintaining 40% of Alberta’s highway network, which includes about 12,000 lane kilometres of highways Athabasca, Stony Plain, Fort McMurray, Vermillion, and Hanna districts.
According to the collective bargaining agreement database managed by provincial government’s Mediation Services department, the most recent contract between Emcon and the roughly 500 workers they employ expired at the end of October 2024.
Bargaining, however, began only at the beginning of October, just weeks before it expired. A year later, and the two parties are still negotiating.
The bargaining team representing the workers originally proposed a 26% wage increase: 13% in the first year, followed by two years of 6.5% each.
Emcon responded with a 1.7% increase in each year of the proposed 3-year agreement. That works out to 5.1% over the life of the contract, 5.19% if you account for compound increases.
Somehow, this private sector employer thought that a 5.19% increase is an appropriate response to a 26% proposal (28.17% compounded). That’s a gap of more than 20 points!
Earlier this month, a year later, they increased their offer to 17%, but it has to be spread out over 5 years, increasing the annual average from 1.7% to 3.4%. That is double what they originally asked for, but less than the annual average increase of 8.67% that the workers asked for.
1 April 2025| 5.00%
---|---
1 April 2026| 3.00%
1 April 2027| 3.00%
1 April 2028| 3.00%
1 April 2029| 3.00%
The workers’ bargaining team has agreed to a 17% raise over the life of the contract, significantly lower than their original ask of 26%.
That being said, they want a collective agreement of 4 years, longer than their original 3-year proposal but shorter than the 5 years that Emcon is asking for. This provides an annual average increase of 4.25%, roughly half of the annual average increase they originally asked for.
Plus, they wanted the first increase to be retroactive to November 2024, not April 2025, which is what the employer wanted.
1 November 2024| 5.00%
---|---
1 April 2025| 4.00%
1 April 2026| 4.00%
1 April 2027| 4.00%
Emcon told the workers that they were not willing to make any more concessions, that their last offer was their final offer.
AUPE is applying for mediation to see if any more movement can be made.
There were a few other areas they could not agree on.
For example, the employer wants to keep overtime at kicking in after 10 hours worked, where it currently is, but the workers want to lower the threshold to 8 hours.
Emcon wants to increase the annual boot allowance from $100 to $125 for everyone except bridge crew, spray patch operators, and asphalt/paving crew, which jump from $200 to $250. The workers however want those increases be $200 and $350, respectively.
The employer also wants to change the cell phone allowance from $10 for every 2 consecutive nights away to $20 per month. The workers want $40 per month.
Workers want to add backhoe operators to the grader and excavator operator premium.
The two parties did find monetary areas to agree on:
* Vision care increase from $300 to $400 every 2 years for eyeglasses and from $75 to $100 every year for eye examinations
* $1.50 per hour premium for grade 1, grader and excavator operators, lead hands, and crew leads.
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### _Related to this story:_ https://albertaworker.ca/news/road-maintenance-workers-going-to-mediation/
