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Council has accepted a collective bargaining settlement between the Regional Municipality of Wooden Buffalo and members of the union representing 750 municipal workers.
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The four-year settlement features a 9 per cent wage enhance, or greater than $9.9 million, that shall be rolled out as much as 2024 and retroactive from 2021. The brand new funding is not going to impression different tasks or companies accepted below the 2023 finances.
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The settlement was ratified by members of Canadian Union of Public Staff (CUPE) Native 1505. The municipality and CUPE started bargaining talks in Oct. 2021 and mediation started in March.
Kari Donnelly, the RMWB’s director of human assets, instructed council at their Tuesday assembly that negotiations often don’t take this lengthy however delays had been attributable to the COVID-19 pandemic and the April 2020 flood. CUPE Alberta spokesperson Lou Arab mentioned in a March interview that the final wage enhance was a 1.25 per cent enhance in early 2020, though some workers haven’t had will increase since 2017.
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In months main as much as mediation, there have been rumours CUPE members would strike. CUPE was many steps away from a strike motion, though CUPE’s leaders mentioned some members supporters a strike.
Strikes can solely occur if mediation fails and a mediator feels the events is not going to discover a resolution. Most members would then have to vote in favour of placing. Even when most members help a strike, the union would return to bargaining talks in a last try and keep away from a labour disruption.
A brand new deal shall be bargained between the RMWB and CUPE 1505 in 2025. Negotiations often begin in the direction of the top of a present settlement, mentioned Donnelly, however the municipality is making ready for these talks. Council accepted the movement unanimously. Councillor Keith McGrath was absent from the assembly. No different delegates spoke to council on the matter.
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