Public works employees will receive a 2.25 per cent raise under a new one-year agreement reached with the city this week.
The deal will cost the city $266,700 and covers the period from Jan. 1 to Dec. 31, 2011. Employees covered by the collective agreement will get a general wage increase of one per cent retroactive to January 1, and a further 2.5 per cent on July 1, 2011. The net effect on the city’s bottom line is a cost increase of 2.25 per cent over the course of the year, said human resources director Doug Gairns.
“We’re pretty happy with it. We think it’s a good deal all around,” he said.
The one-year term means the two sides will begin the next bargaining process in the fall.
“I think there’s still a bit of uncertainty as to what 2012 might look like so this gives us an opportunity to get back in the fall and talk about it again,” Gairns said.
The desire for a short-term agreement was mutual, said Brett MacDonald, vice-president of local 941 of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, which represents 118 employees in the public works and transit departments.
“We didn’t want to sign a long-term thing. We don’t know what the economy is going to do,” he said.
The increase isn’t as large as other recent deals but “that’s the times right now,” MacDonald said.
“That’s part of the way the times are right now. It’s not like you’re going to be able to sign an eight- or nine-percenter right now.
The city is continuing to negotiate with two other unions: another CUPE local that represents municipal enforcement workers and the International Association of Firefighters, which represents the city’s firefighters.
Earlier this year the city awarded its non-unionized employees with a one per cent cost of living increase. That raise took into consideration cost of living statistics for the Capital region and settlements within other municipalities in the region and mid-sized Alberta municipalities. In 2010 the Consumer Price Index for the Edmonton area was 1.07 per cent.
