Workers at the Cypress View Foundation have accepted a three-year wage freeze as part of a new union contract that was signed in the fall but announced this week by Alberta Labour.--NEWS PHOTO COLLIN GALLANT
cgallant@medicinehatnews.com@CollinGallant
Long-term care workers at southeast Alberta’s publicly operated Cypress View Foundation will see no raises for the next three years, according to the latest bulletin from Alberta Labour.
It’s the last of the outstanding contracts for the Canadian Union of Public Employees, Local No. 46, and the latest in a string of wage freezes, including working at City of Medicine Hat.
About 80 unionized employees at Cypress View ratified the contract in late October, though notice first appeared in the overview of January contract settlements published this week.
It shows no wage increases for the first three years of the 48-month contract, then a 1 per cent raise in 2023, for employees at the facility in northwest Crescent Heights.
As well in the update, workers at the Medicine Hat Library, also represented by CUPE No. 46, have a three year deal that provides raises of 2 and 1.5 per cent per year, respectively, before a zero in 2023 contract year.
Layoffs there in mid-2020 reduced the size of the workforce to 35.
Both are legally separate entities from the City of Medicine Hat, but are related through funding arrangements.
The Cypress View Foundation is funded through a tax requisition and levy collected alongside property taxes in Medicine Hat, Redcliff and Cypress County. Those three jurisdictions comprise its governing board.
The Medicine Hat Public Library is also legally independent from the city, but receives an operating grant from the municipal budget. The bargaining update states that 35 employees ratified the three-year deal.
In late 2020, CUPE members at the City of Medicine Hat approved a two-year wage freeze as part of a three-year deal that expires at the end of 2022. CUPE members at Town of Redcliff will receive raises between 1 and 1.5 per cent each year from 2020 to 2022.
The recent CUPE contract at the Medicine Hat Community Housing society mimics the Cypress View deal in compensation. Wages are frozen there until 2023.
Pact at gas plants
In late filed agreements, the update states that workers at the Plains Midstream straddle plants near Empress secured a four-year deal last March. The 50 members of the Unifor Local 503A there will see escalating wage increases until early 2023, stated as 2.5, 2.75, 3 and 3.5 per cent, respectively over four years.
