Calgary union boss says workers 'undervalued' after members ratify deal
The head of one of the city’s largest unions says its members are “deeply undervalued” after workers grudgingly agreed to back a short-term labour deal, which will see two years of frozen wages followed by marginal hike.
Although a majority of the city’s inside workers voted to ratify the agreement on Friday, D’Arcy Lanovaz, president of Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 38 said members are frustrated with the outcome.
“I’ve heard loud and clear from our membership that they are deeply frustrated, at the point of angry,” said Lanovaz, whose union represents about 4,000 of the city’s inside workers.
Lanovaz said city workers feel “deeply undervalued” by city council and that council was “intent on not being fair.”
He declined to share the percentage of employees who voted in favour of the deal during several voting sessions held across the city Friday.
Over a year has passed since the collective agreement for CUPE 38, along with the city’s other nine public sector unions, expired in early 2018.
The new contract, which must still be formally signed, will freeze wages for two years, over 2018 and 2019, followed by an increase of 1.5 per cent in the final year.
Lanovaz said the current membership won’t forget what happened during this round of negotiations, saying council “lashed out” at its own employee base.
But members of council believe the agreement is an attempt to rebalance the wage scale after most of the city’s unionized employees received a generous four-year deal just before Calgary plunged into its economic downturn.
Coun. Peter Demong said, “I think it’s a deal that both sides can live with.”
The south Calgary councillor said there are some who believe the settlement should have included across the board wage freezes all three years, considering the last contract was “rather generous.” The previous four-year deal, which was inked in 2014 a few days after inside workers approved a strike mandate, guaranteed a 12.5 per cent salary hike over the term.
When the deal expired, along with that of the city’s outside workers, some civic politicians suggested unions should prepare to make steep concessions on pay and potential wage freezes.
The city met with the union’s bargaining unit at the end of January hoping to hammer out an agreement, but according to a union newsletter published in February, their proposal for a two-year deal with “reasonable increases” gained no traction, with the city pushing for a three-year agreement.
Despite introducing a mediator to the discussions, the city’s position remained virtually static, the union said.
With the nine remaining city unions continuing the operate without contracts, Coun. Ward Sutherland said he’s hopeful the CUPE 38 deal will serve as the model for the remaining outstanding collective agreements.
“We’ve made it very clear to our negotiation teams that council will not move off our position,” said Sutherland. “This is about Calgary and moving us forward in our tough budget, so we’re asking them to participate in the realities of our budget and I think it’s the right thing for them to do.”
While union leaders may be questioning the deal, Coun. Shane Keating said he believe’s it’s fair, given the numbers from the previous collective agreement.
“This is definitely the direction we have to go in,” he said. “This (deal) kind of brings it back into perspective.”
Moving forward, Keating believes the city needs an in-depth service line review to decipher which programs are necessary, could be reduced or eliminated.