City of Calgary inside workers to hold strike vote next week

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In the midst of a bargaining impasse, City of Calgary workers will hold a strike vote next week, according to the president of the union that represents more than 5,000 of the city’s indoor employees.

The Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Local 38, which represents the city’s administrative or technical workers, submitted an application for a strike vote to the Alberta Labour Relations Board. The strike vote was approved Monday, and CUPE Local 38’s workers will conduct the vote next Wednesday and Thursday.

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CUPE Local 38’s collective agreement with the city expired Dec. 31, 2023. Since then, the union’s bargaining agents have been meeting to negotiate a new contract. But according to union president D’Arcy Lanovaz, the parties have not been able to hash out a suitable resolution.

He said the union filed for provincial mediation on March 30, and both sides met with the third-party mediator on April 8, 16 and 26.

“We believe that we’ve sharpened our pencils to a point where we’ve given our best offer to the city and we’re still quite a ways apart on that,” Lanovaz said. “We asked the mediator to book out, or write out, which is to basically step aside.”

The mediator’s departure last week kicked off the two-week “cooling off period,” which Lanovaz said is a requirement under the Alberta Labour Relations Code. During this period, neither the employer nor union can engage in any labour action.

Lanovaz said he is optimistic Local 38 will hold a “strong strike vote,” based on members’ meetings to date.

‘We think cooler heads ought to prevail’

He added CUPE Local 38, the largest union at the city of Calgary, proposed a 10.5 per cent raise for members over three years — 4.5 per cent this year, 3.5 per cent in 2025 and three per cent in 2026.

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The city countered with an eight per cent raise over three years, according to Lanovaz, which he argued doesn’t account for inflation, an improving local economy or the city’s recent operating surpluses, including a $238-million positive variance last year.

“We came to the table with our last offer,” he said. “It boiled right down to, we thought we struck a balance between all those indicators and being affordable to the taxpayers.”

Lanovaz said another concern among the union’s members has been language in the agreement regarding the flexibility of work-from-home policies.

After next week’s vote, he said the next step will be to return to the bargaining table. If the city “fails to get serious,” he added the union would then consider potential labour action, such as work-to-rule or rotating strikes.

“We think cooler heads ought to prevail — that’s certainly our hope,” he said. “The ultimate goal here is to get to an agreement, not to get into a strike position.

“We would carefully escalate any pressure . . . to show the employer our membership is united.”

In a statement to Postmedia, the city said it is aware of Local 38’s scheduled strike vote and is committed to maintaining negotiations in good faith.

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“The city values all of its employees and is committed to working with our union partners to achieve a fair and reasonable agreement at the bargaining table,” the city said.

The city also said it recently reached a tentative agreement with CUPE Local 37, which represents the city’s outdoor workers, and a ratification vote will be held with its members on May 23.

Busy year of bargaining, with all collective agreements expired

With all of the city’s collective agreements expired, 2024 appears to be a busy bargaining year.

Of Calgary’s 10 public sector unions, every single one of their collective agreements expired on either Dec. 31, 2023 or early in 2024.

In addition to CUPE Local 37 and 38, unions whose agreements expired on New Year’s Eve included the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 583, the Carpenters’ Union Local 2103 and CUPE Local 709 (foremen).

The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 254 will also be negotiating a new contract with the city, after theirs expired on March 30.

Calgary’s police and firefighting associations — the Calgary Police Association and International Association of Firefighters (IAFF) Local 255 — are also in bargaining talks with the city, following the expiration of their collective agreements on the same date.

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