Mediation: jobs for 4,000 city hall workers in Calgary, Alberta have become an issue in wage talks between the Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 38 and the city government.  A strike vote is expected this week; the two sides had previously been in mediation but now, the two sides are no longer talking.

The union position is that the city's proposal for a wage hike spread out over three years is unacceptable considering that aldermen for the city were granted a large wage hike all in a single year.  That was in 2011, and questions remain as to whether the city's finances could have changed so drastically in the interim as to necessitate a smaller wage increase for workers.

Mediation: Jobs and Salaries Not Comparable

The average pay of aldermen in Calgary is adjusted automatically to reflect the average earnings in the province.  This meant that in 2011, a wage increase of nearly five per cent was warranted.  Workers have no such built-in guarantee of wage scaling, however.  This allows the city the freedom to offer a wage increase of merely two per cent for the current year with slightly higher amounts for the succeeding two years.

It remains to be seen whether aldermen in Calgary will receive wage increases far in excess of what workers receive in the next two years.

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