AVIS: Talking Money with More Dates Coming!
Your Union Bargaining Committee met with Company on May 21 & 22 and June 9 & 10 to begin working on a new collective bargaining agreement.
Here are the members of your committee:
- Nilo Yee (Mechanic)
- Omaid Nekzad (Utility Agent)
- Scotty Betcher (Shuttler)
- Nardos Gebregiorgis (Rental Sales Agent)
In-going proposals
Bargaining began on May 21 with the Union and the Company exchanging proposals.
You can see the Union’s ingoing proposals by clicking here.
And you can see the Company’s ingoing proposals by clicking here.
Money and Wages
The first two days of bargaining, May 21 & 22, focused on non-monetary items and we moved onto monetary discussions on June 9 & 10.
Regarding wages, the Company has offered increases of just 1.5% in 2025, 2026, and 2027 for top-rate employees. The Company has not yet offered retro pay for top-rate employees.
Your committee tabled an initial wage offer of 10% per year for three years, and our last position from June 10 was 8.5%, 8.0% and 8.0%.
For employees in the wage progression, the Company has offered the following hourly rates:
- Rental Sales Agents: Start- $16.50 ($0.25 increase), 12 month- $17.00 ($0.25 increase)
- Service Agents: Start- $18.00 ($0.25 increase), 12 month- $18.50 ($0.25 increase)
- Rover Agents: Start- $18.00 ($1.00 increase), 12 month- $18.50 ($0.50 increase)
- Shuttlers: Start- $15.60 ($0.10 increase), 12 month- $16.00 ($0.00 increase)
- Utility Agents: Start- $19.00 ($0.75 increase), 12 month- $20.00 ($1.25 increase)
- Mechanics: Start- $35.00 ($5.00 increase), 12 month- $36.00 ($5.00 increase)
The Company has not offered retro pay for employees in the wage progression.
Overall, the Company’s wage offer is not suitable to meet your economic needs, and they must do better. The increases being offered are insufficient, and your committee will continue to press Avis to improve their offer significantly. Also, the Company needs to provide retro pay.
Benefits
The Company has offered an increase in the full-time vision benefits to $325.00 every twenty-four (24) months. This represents an increase of seventy-five ($75.00) dollars.
Your union committee is seeking further increases to full-time benefits, including two thousand dollars ($2000.00) per year, one hundred percent (100%) coverage for prescription drugs, and one hundred percent (100%) coverage for prescription drugs.
Most Avis employees are part-time, and they currently do not have any company benefits. To fix this issue, your union committee has proposed that each part-time employee who has completed two thousand eighty (2080) or more hours as of January 1st of each year shall have access to a one thousand ($1000.00) dollar per year Heath Spending Account to cover the following benefits: physiotherapy, chiropractor, massage, dental, prescription drugs, and vision care (including eye exams).
An increase to the full-time eyewear benefits is substantial, but key issues for full-time employees remain outstanding, such as dental benefits. We will also continue to fight for the establishment of part-time benefits.
Pension
The Company has offered new language that establishes a matching RRSP program. Full-time employees would be eligible after twelve (12) months of employment, and part-time employees would be eligible after twenty-four (24) months.
Clothing and Footwear
The Company has offered to increase the footwear allowance for Rental Sales Agents to $100.00 and all other classifications to $135.00.
Regarding uniforms, the Union is proposing to include language in the new collective agreement that guarantees the Company will continue to provide the clothing it currently offers to employees.
Premiums
The Company has offered to increase the Parking allowance for Downtown full-time employees to one hundred seventy-five dollars ($175.00) per month, and one hundred and twenty ($120.00) dollars per month for part-time employees.
The Union is proposing to increase the night shift premiums and the lead hand premium.
General Holidays & Vacation
The Company is not offering improvements here, but the Union is seeking improvements to General Holiday and vacation entitlements.
Future bargaining dates
We have secured August 19 and 20, and August 29 for further bargaining. We were scheduled to meet with the Employer on June 19 and 20; however, the employer stated that they would not be able to provide a further monetary offer by that time, so we had to cancel those dates. We were also unable to find new dates in June or July, so we will meet again in August.
What are your monetary priorities?
Your union committee has made significant progress on monetary items. Still, we need your input to know what we most need to focus on when we return to the bargaining table.
We have included a link to a survey below that covers the following topics:
- Contact Information (to ensure our records for you are up to date).
- Ranking eight different monetary items from the most to least important (including wages, full- and part-time benefits, vacation, holiday and sick pay, and more).
- Ranking the importance of three different kinds of benefits.
Click here to fill out the survey!
Open and transparent bargaining
As a reminder, collective bargaining is conducted in an open and transparent manner. If you wish to attend bargaining in the future, please don’t hesitate to contact Jeff Ible directly (by phone at 587-583-1501, or by e-mail at jible@ufcw401.ab.ca).
Stay tuned for future updates!
Posted on: July 09,2025