Hours after news emerged that a tentative deal between the City of Edmonton and the union representing thousands of its workers had been reached to avoid a strike, the Edmonton Public Library announced Thursday night that it too had reached a deal with the union.
In a news release issued just before 10 p.m., the EPL said all libraries will stay open after it reached a tentative agreement with Civic Service Union 52 that would prevent any labour disruption for now.
“I am pleased to announce that a tentative agreement has been reached between CSU 52 and EPL,” EPL CEO Pilar Martinez said in a statement.
“While this tentative agreement must be ratified by EPL’s union members, we are delighted that Edmontonians may continue to access all EPL services while this process is underway.”
CSU 52 tweeted about the deal.
“We can confirm that we have reached a tentative agreement with both the City of Edmonton and Edmonton Public Library,” the union posted on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. “There will be no labour disruption at this time.”
A strike had expected to begin Friday morning.
Late Friday morning, CSU 52 provided a few details about the tentative four-year deal with members who work for the city and the EPL. The union said both were offered the same monetary increases in a four-year deal.
The union said, if ratified by members, the contract would give members a lump-sum payment of $1,000, a retroactive 1.25-per cent wage increase for 2022, a retroactive two-per cent wage increase for 2023 and a three-per cent wage increase for 2024.
The union noted it had spent about 18 months negotiating the two deals with the city.
Lanny Chudyk, the president of CSU 52, spoke to reporters about the deals late Friday morning.
“I’d like to say I’m extremely relieved that we were able to put these tentative deals together,” he said, adding that he has already heard from many members who said they were relieved a strike was avoided.
Chudyk said members still have to vote to ratify the agreements, but he said he’s “pretty certain” that will happen.
“Both parties compromised a bit at the end of the bargaining.”
Chudyk said the union took taxpayers into account in their negotiations, realizing that they are the ones who pay for the agreed-upon wage increases.
“We also were able to successfully negotiate some non-monetary language and other parts of the agreement that my members had been looking for for a long time in both the city and EPL agreements.”
Chudyk said his members “never wanted to go to a picket line” or to “disrupt services.”
He added that he believes some members of city council played a major role in reviving negotiations after they stalled.
“I would like to thank council for stepping in at the last minute, particularly Coun. (Tim) Cartmell, who I am led to believe was instrumental in getting council to review and instruct their management team to get back to the table with us and strike a deal,” Chudyk said.
Jason Foster, associate professor of human resources and labour relations at Athabasca University, said it appears both parties found a way to meet in the middle with this tentative deal.
“If we look at what the union wanted and what the employer wanted… they came to the middle in terms of term length, but they also seem to have come to the middle in terms of the money,” Foster said.
“Being at the 11th hour, both bargaining teams got very aware of what they were about to do and just found a way to dig in and figure it out.”
Both deals will now go to members for a ratification vote after the union holds information sessions to talk to members about the tentative contracts.
Chudyk said he expects both votes to take place late next week and that results could become available as soon as the following Monday or Tuesday.