Labour Notes: Employees at renewables construction company ink new two-year deal
By Medicine Hat News on January 10, 2024.
medicinehatnews.com@Medicine Hat News Renewable energy construction workers at Borea Construction will see a 6 per cent raise over two years as part of a new two-year union contract, according to a latest collective bargaining report by the province. About 270 employees of the construction firm that has major projects in southeast Alberta are represented and negotiated by the Christian Labour Association of Canada. A deal ratified on Nov. 14 provides a 4 per cent wage increase, then 2 per cent in the final year. The most recent update from the Alberta Jobs Ministry, covering November and December, was released Jan. 8. It includes two separate one-year contracts between two local school boards and educational assistants, clerical and custodial staff represented by Canadian Union of Public Employees, Local No. 829. About 280 workers with the Medicine Hat Public School Division and 20 with Medicine Hat Catholic Board of Education will each receive a 1.25 per cent increase retroactive to Sept. 1, then an additional 1.5 per cent on Feb. 1. A potential 0.5 per cent additional increase at that time would be based on unstated economic factors. Educational workers with Southern Francophone Education, represented by Unifor No. 1990, won a 3.75 per cent raise this year in a new three-year deal that provides no other raises and expires next August. In the region, 123 members of CUPE No. 2038 at the Town of Taber won retroactive increases totalling 6.5 per cent. A new two-year deal replaces a contract that expired in late 2021, and since the signing has itself expired at the end of 2023. Maple Leaf Pork plant workers in Lethbridge inked a six-year contract, negotiated by the United Food and Commercial Workers, Local No. 401, on Nov. 22. It provides raises in the range of 50 cents an hour in each year of the contract until early 2028. A strike vote for UFCW workers at the Edmonton Maple Leaf poultry plant was scheduled to take place Jan. 7. 11-10
