EPL/COE Bargaining Updates & Emergency Meetings

Posted on 2/26/2024


Our City of Edmonton (COE) and Edmonton Public Library (EPL) bargaining teams met on Sunday, February 25, 2024, to discuss the current delayed decision from the Alberta Labour Relations Board (Board) on the COE’s request to conduct a proposal vote, and all the possible scenarios that can happen once we receive that decision.

While EPL did not apply to conduct a proposal vote on their monetary offer, since money for raises for both groups of employees comes from City Council, the path forward for EPL is also dependent on the COE’s proposal vote decision.

We acknowledge that this delay is unsettling for everyone and our hope was to hear from the Board today. We also recognize the additional frustration that EPL members are feeling from continually being subjected to the COE’s agenda even though EPL is a separate bargaining unit with its own Collective Agreement.

The COE applied for a proposal vote while EPL was already voting and just prior to the COE’s strike vote. We saw this as a tactic by the COE to distract members from the strike vote, and a way for the COE to try and get members to put pressure on the Union to accept a deal that is not acceptable.

The COE’s Proposal application contained several issues, including their offer still needs to be ratified by Council. The Union needed to challenge the application. In order for a party to conduct a proposal vote, the offer needs to be able to form a collective agreement, and not have the chance to be voted down by the employer after members vote yes. There is significant legal precedent to support the Union’s challenge regarding ratification and this, combined with the fact that many of our Edmonton Police Service (EPS) members going on strike may cause public safety issues, could be causing the delay of the Board’s decision.

We applaud the members for taking the brave step to vote yes to strike. We acknowledge that this was not an easy decision to make and that a strike will have a significant monetary impact on everyone’s livelihood. We do not take the decision to strike lightly, and we continue to want a negotiated settlement. We understand that many of you would prefer that we issue strike notice as soon as possible; however, it is extremely important that we hear the Board’s decision before moving forth with next steps.

We are at the end of a long and tiring round of bargaining. We are all feeling fatigued. Regardless, we must remain strong and committed to this fight to the bitter end, even if it involves issuing strike notice.

We hear that some members may want to conduct strike action on their own, and we strongly discourage them from taking this step. Taking this sort of illegal action, could result in employees being terminated, and the Union can be fined a significant monetary penalty, which would drain money from the strike fund. We need the strike fund to be as healthy as possible should the entire membership need to strike.

There are multiple scenarios of how the next steps can play out after we receive the Board’s decision, and we will attempt to outline the scenarios as clearly as possible.

SCENARIO: The Board Approves the City’s Proposal Vote Application

If the Board approves the COE’s application, our efforts need to turn towards having our members at the COE vote NO! to the COE’s proposal. Voting no to the offer further solidifies our members’ desire for a fair and equitable deal and again shows City Administration, the Mayor and Council that they need to negotiate, not mandate the general wage increase and terms and conditions of employment.

At the same time, we may have our members at both the COE and EPL vote/ratify the Union’s bargaining teams’ final offers to the employers. This step would be taken for two reasons:

  1. To show the Employers that our members will accept our fair and reasonable offer to settle collective bargaining.

  2. To complete an important step that is required should we decide to apply for a Union side Proposal Vote at both EPL and the COE.

It is important to note that in this case, ratification of the final offers does not form a Collective Agreement, unless the Employers also ratify the offer.

SCENARIO: The Board Denies the City’s Proposal Vote Application

If the Board denies the COE’s application, we will allow the employers’ bargaining team a few days to return to the bargaining table with a new monetary offer to settle. Should this not happen, we will issue 72 hours’ notice to strike to both the COE and EPL.

Edmonton Police Service members striking puts public and officer safety at risk. There are three options that the Government of Alberta (GOA) could take to delay and/or stop a strike at the COE from occurring to protect the public and sworn officers:

  1. Disputes Inquiry Board (DIB). A neutral Board is assigned to assist the parties in defining the issues in dispute and to help the parties to explore all options to settle collective bargaining. This is a non-binding process similar to mediation so there are no guarantees a negotiated settlement will be achieved, although there is pressure on the parties to conclude bargaining. The DIB will issue a recommendation to settle the impasse. If the DIB happens prior to members going on strike or being locked-out, neither party can take strike or lockout action until the DIB process is complete. This does not prevent a strike or lockout from happening if the DIB is unsuccessful. If the DIB happens while the strike or lockout is happening, members remain on strike or are locked out at the same time as the DIB process plays out.

  2. Public Emergency Tribunal. The GOA can declare a public emergency to stop or end a strike or lockout and refer the matter to a Public Emergency Tribunal. This Tribunal is a form of compulsory arbitration. This means that decisions made by the Tribunal to settle collective bargaining are final and binding and a new Collective Agreement would then be in place.

  3. The GOA may introduce and pass legislation specific to the COE situation.

Please note that we do not expect the above scenarios to apply to EPL. Possible outcomes will be discussed with EPL members at the March 3rd meeting.

March 4, 2024 would be the earliest date that we would serve our 72-hour strike notice; however, this date is fluid and depends on all of the scenarios noted above. Since we expect the Board decision on the COE’s proposal vote imminently, we’ve arranged meetings on the following dates to discuss next steps with members:

Emergency Bargaining Meetings

Emergency Bargaining Meetings
City of Edmonton

Online on Zoom
Thursday, February 29

Choose a session:
11:30 am - 1:00 pm,
3:00 pm - 4:30 pm, or
6:00 pm - 7:30 pm

 Live Closed Captioning will be available for all three meetings.

Register now

Emergency Bargaining Meeting
Edmonton Public Library

Online on Zoom
Sunday, March 3

6:30 pm - 8:30 pm

 Live Closed Captioning will be available for this meeting.

Register now

These meetings are extremely important, and we encourage all COE and EPL members to attend.