The Town of Drumheller has reached an agreement with CUPE Local 135 for a four-year contract.
Drumheller Town Council voted to ratify the agreement at its Monday, May 13 council meeting.
“Council recognizes the hard work and contributions of our outside workers and we are happy that they recognize the difficult economy that we all face as individuals and taxpayers and have ratified an agreement that supports both the employees and taxpayer,” said Mayor Heather Colberg.
The agreement is with the Outside Workers. These are employees in the infrastructure, facilities and water, wastewater business units. The agreement calls for a 1 per cent wage increase dating back to January 2019, and then an additional 0.65 per cent on July 1, 2019. There is a 1 per cent increase January 1, 2020, and then a 0.75 per cent increase on July 1, 2020. There is a 2 per cent increase in 2021 and a 2.5 per cent increase in 2022.
Richard Tietge is the Local 135 president and says he is happy they have reached an agreement.
“With these times it is just nice to see us keeping up with inflation,” he said. “We really didn’t get a raise we kept up the inflation.”
“It was a hard fought battle, but we’re happy it was settled,” he said.
He said part of the rationale for a four-year agreement is negotiations would not be at the same time as a general municipal election.
Corporate services director for the Town of Drumheller, Barb Miller, says the contract helps in the budgeting process.
“Having a new 4-year contract in place that recognizes the value of employee efforts while maintaining fiscal balance, is great news for Drumheller. Knowing future labour costs, our single largest expense item, significantly improves the multi-year budgeting process,” she said.
A press release from the Town of Drumheller further stated there are a number of other changes that will streamline operations and improve benefits for staff.
“This agreement is in line with other settlements in Alberta over the last year. We are satisfied with the effort both the Town and CUPE Local 135 made to improve and modernize the Collective Agreement which recognizes recent changes in legislation and how we work together,” said CAO Darryl Drohomerski.
