Aramark U of C Workers Win Big in Bargaining!

May 13, 2022 – Calgary, AB – UFCW 401 members working at Aramark’s University of Calgary locations can be very proud to have fought for and won many important and impressive improvements to their union contract.

By a margin of 94% of voting members, these workers will now enjoy improvements to leaves of absence, wage increases (including retro pay), statutory holidays, and job security to name a few.

Some of the highlights include:

  • Employee rights language designed for added job protection,
  • Increased floater days off,
  • Increase to bereavement leave,
  • All employees who have reached 5 years of service will receive a $500 bonus,
  • Should minimum wage exceed any current classification rate of pay, the entire scale will be increased to reflect the legislated bump up to the start rate,
  • Cross training opportunities for many job classifications,
  • National Day for Truth and Reconciliation added as a paid statutory holiday,
  • A reduction in the sunset clause (expiration of discipline on employee files) reduced from 24 months to 18 months.

In addition to retroactive pay back to the expiry of the last Agreement, workers achieved wage increases in each year of the Collective Agreement going forward:

  • Oct. 1, 2019 to Oct. 2021 – 3% retro pay
  • Oct. 1, 2022 – 2.5% wage increase
  • Oct. 1, 2023 – 2.5% wage increase
  • Oct. 1, 2024 – 3% wage increase
  • Oct. 1, 2025 – 3% wage increase

“Secretary Treasurer Richelle Stewart and I send our warmest congratulations to the negotiating committee for their hard work and determination in pushing for these exciting improvements,” says UFCW 401 President Thomas Hesse. “With a 94% acceptance, we think the hard-working members at the U of C would agree that it pays to belong to UFCW 401 – together, we make great things happen!”

The United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 401 is Alberta’s largest private-sector union with 32,000 members working in diverse sectors of the Alberta economy, including food processing, retail, education, entertainment, healthcare, and hospitality