Two down, and several more to go.
The city has confirmed that it has reached collective agreements with a pair of its unions. The Edmonton Police Association has a three-year deal that covers 2018-2020, while the Edmonton Fire Fighters’ Union has a retroactive agreement for 2017 and 2018.
Terms have not been disclosed, however, sources told Global News the wage increases in the firefighters’ agreement are in the two per cent to three per cent range each year, while increases or police are in the 1.5 per cent ballpark each year with additional benefits.
Those numbers are what Lanny Chudyk, the president of Civic Service Unit 52, said he is expecting to see when he sits down with negotiators.
“Yeah, it’s probably somewhere in that range,” he said in a phone interview. “When you look at the province as a whole, and you look at economic situations, if the city wanted to give me a couple of threes I wouldn’t say no, but I’m certainly not expecting those are going to be the numbers.”
The Notley government attempted to reach agreements with provincial unions with as little raises as possible, citing tough economic conditions.
Councillor Andrew Knack said he is not expecting those settlements, like the one with the AUPE this past August, to impact city talks.
“The province did some agreements that occurred for 2017 and 2018 and a lot of our agreements are working on 2019 and beyond.”
Knack also said he doubts what has been settled with police and fire will impact the other four main civic unions, representing inside (CSU-52) and outside workers (CUPE Local 30), transit (ATU-569) and electrical workers (IBEW-1007).
“Emergency services are always a different conversation, and I think they’ve very much been impacted by what happens throughout other emergency services across municipalities across Alberta,” Knack said.
“Right now, we are working with the firefighters union on terms for a new collective agreement going forward,” said Suzette Mellado, a spokesperson for citizens’ services, in a statement confirming the 2017 and 2018 contracts.
Chudyk said he expects talks to go slowly, even though a year ago his negotiating team worked out a three-year deal with EPCOR for 2018-2020 that saw raises of 2.3, 2.5 and 2.7 per cent.
He said dealing with the city is different.
“To get the two bargaining teams in the room, you’re probably looking at Christmas of next year.”
The four-year budget that was passed in December, which included a 2.6 per cent property tax increase, rubbed Chudyk the wrong way.
READ MORE: Council settles on 2.6% Edmonton property tax increase for next 4 years
Watch below: (From December 2018) Edmonton city councillors have approved a property tax increase of 2.6 per cent each year over the next four years. Vinesh Pratap has the details.
“I see a huge amount of money on LRT and bike lanes, and a number of other things that are nice if you’re rolling in dough, but when times are tough…,” he said, pointing out that retired union members have called him to complain about not being able to afford the property tax increase.