Bargaining in 2025—it's time to show our strength

It’s been a long road, but bargaining with the Government of Alberta (GOA) has finally reached a critical point.

“We knew this was going to be a tough round of negotiations,” says AUPE President Guy Smith. “That’s why so much work has been done to engage with members.”

AUPE members began this process 18 months ago at a bargaining conference in Edmonton. Since then, our Government Services Bargaining Committee (GSBC) has put in more hours, done more research, and engaged more members than ever before.

We also organized 54 town-halls and 35 rallies across the province in 2024, which included AUPE members who work in health care, education, boards, agencies, and municipalities.

Over 10,000 GOA members joined four telephone town halls last August. Nearly 11,000 joined the more recent telephone town halls in December.

Each Local in the GOA had its own three-member negotiating team. They met with the employer separately to ensure that issues specific to those Locals were addressed.

“Members made it clear they needed big raises to help with soaring inflation and years of no or low wage increases,” says Smith.

Members also identified staffing levels, benefits, job security, and mental health as key priorities in bargaining.

Your negotiating team heard you loud and clear, but the government has yet to fully respond to your key demands. 

Mediation was tense

Therefore, we have entered into formal mediation with an experienced, third-party mediator to help reach a collective agreement. But that couldn’t happen until both sides negotiated an Essential Services Agreement (ESA). ESAs set out who can strike and who needs to remain at work to protect life, safety and public health.

After a lot of hard work, our ESA for Government of Alberta members is now complete. You can find the ESA for GOA workers here.

Formal mediation began recently, and our meetings were tense. In fact, there were times when the whole process almost broke down.

We knew we had to show the government that we are serious about achieving major gains and that we have invested significant time, energy, and resources into preparing AUPE members for potential strike votes and strikes.  

The government seemed to finally listen to this message. Our sessions ended with much more focused and resolution-based discussions.  

Mediation will continue until April 10. We will have a much clearer understanding of what we need to do next following those meetings.  

The GSBC is organizing telephone town halls for late April to fully report on the status of bargaining and what the next steps in the bargaining process will be. Stay tuned for more information on how you can participate in these town halls.

Bargaining in other sectors—where are we at?

Bargaining for GOA members is further along than at other tables, but negotiations elsewhere have followed a similar pattern, especially with large employers like Alberta Health Services, Covenant Health, and the University of Calgary.

“Nearly 100,000 AUPE members are in bargaining right now, and we’re all facing the same challenges,” says Smith. "There’s a big gap between what members are worth and what our employers say they are willing to pay.

“We are at a critical stage where we need to prove that we’re willing to fight to get more.” 

That’s why AUPE has been busy recruiting and training strike captains who will be in charge of picket lines in the event of a strike or lockout.  

AUPE has also rebuilt its website to answer members’ most important questions about strikes, including how to sign up to vote, what a strike captain does, and how a picket line works.

The best way to not have to go on strike—or to keep a strike short—is to have members give an overwhelming strike mandate when they vote, says Smith.

“Ultimately our goal must be, and continues to be, to achieve strong collective agreements at the bargaining table. That work will continue as long as there’s a focus on building our members’ strength and capacity to stand firm,” he says.