By rdnewsNOW staff

Collective Bargaining Agreements

Government unions still seeing pay increases during downturn: CTF

Dec 18, 2020 | 2:39 PM

The Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) has released a report claiming to show hundreds of government wage settlements across Alberta, including 12 in Red Deer, resulting in pay increases during the economic downturn, with zero leading to pay reductions.

“We couldn’t find a single example of a government union that was willing to take a pay cut during Alberta’s downturn,” said Franco Terrazzano, the CTF’s Alberta Director, in a news release.

“Many workers outside of government lost their job or took a cut to keep their job, but not a single government labour agreement reflected this tough reality facing the province and taxpayers.”

The CTF’s report analyzed collective bargaining agreements published by the Alberta government, which show 295 settlements leading to pay increases for provincial and municipal government employees from the end of 2014 to October, 2020.

CTF officials say there were no settlements that resulted in government employees receiving a pay cut, while thousands of government employees under so-called wage freeze agreements actually received pay increases.

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The last broad Alberta government pay cut occurred in 1994, according to documents obtained by Secondstreet.org through freedom of information requests.

While no government settlements resulted in pay reductions during the downturn, 107 non-government union wage settlements resulted in pay reductions.

“Many Albertans have taken pay cuts to avoid as many layoffs as possible while keeping businesses afloat, but we couldn’t find a single government union that made that kind of sacrifice,” added Terrazzano. “We can’t keep asking struggling families to pay more tax because government union bosses aren’t willing to share in the burden.”

According to the CTF there were 30 government wage settlements resulting in pay increases in Calgary during the nearly six-year time frame, 25 in Edmonton, 25 in Lethbridge, 13 in Medicine Hat, 10 in Grande Prairie, seven in the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo, and 173 others elsewhere province-wide.