Details of school workers deal among new crop of provincial contracts

By Medicine Hat News on June 17, 2025.

@MedicineHatNews

Details of a local school workers contract are detailed in the latest summary of collective bargaining from the province, along with substantial increases for unionized construction workers.

In May, a settlement between two Medicine Hat school boards and Canadian Union of Public Employees was announced after five months of talks, the replacement of local union executives and some wrangling before the Alberta Labour Relations Board,

The May overview of bargaining settlements, provided by the Alberta Jobs Ministry, shows the province-wide target was also applied in Medicine Hat.

The contract involves about 280 educational assistants and support staff in the public system, along with 20 custodians in the Catholic system, who are jointly represented by CUPE local No. 829.

They will receive a 3-per-cent increase retroactive to last September, then 3 per cent or $1.25 (whichever is greater) in September 2025. The same pattern of increases will be given in the autumns of 2026 and 2027, respectively.

That deal mimics new contracts in the Horizons School Division (near Lethbridge), High Prairie, Red Deer and six other schools boards where CUPE’s provincial office threatened job action this past school year. Several included other market adjustments.

Elsewhere in the public sector, about 275 Faculty Association members at the Lethbridge Polytechnique will receive 3 per cent annual raises over the next four years. That mimics a wage settlement for 6,000 non-academic staff members at the University of Alberta.

More than 5,000 members of the Edmonton Civic Service Union signed a three-year contract giving a total of 8.75 per cent raise by the end of 2027.

In multi-employer construction agreements in a flurry of updates largely show increases of 2 or 3 per cent annually for masons, insulators, plumbers, millwrights and others, but several increases reach double digits.

The Alberta Crane Owners Association agreed to an initial 13.4 per cent increase for 1,200 members of the Operating Engineers, Local No. 955.

A multi-employer agreement with 2,400 members of the Boilermakers Local 146, sees a first-year wage bump of 10 per cent, followed by an additional 7 per cent over three years

CLAC members are Kiewet Fabricators will receive a 17 per cent raise over to years in a smaller single employer deal.

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