City of Nanaimo Union Wage Contracts

City Employee Wage Increases

The following are the wage increases you city council have agreed to since 2007 for both CUPE and IAFF employees. The increases following are for wages only and do not include any 'hidden' increases such as benefits etc.

It is safe to say, your city council has been agreeing to some pretty generouus settlements given these employees were already making well in excess of the 'average' Nanaimo income. In most cases, individuals working for the city earn in excess of the average household income in Nanaimo.

CUPE Negotiated Wage Increases

+3.0% - 2007
+3.0% - 2008
+3.0% - 2009
+3.5% - 2010
+2.0% - 2011
+2.0% - 2012

IAFF Negotiated Wage Increases

+ 3.5% - 2007
+ 2.5% - 2008 Jan. 2
+ 2.5% - 2008 Oct.
+0.05% -2009 Jan 1
+ 2.5% - 2009 Jan 24
+ 2.5% - 2009 Nov 15

The source for these increases was the five year financial plan 2012 - 2016 on the city of Nanaimo website. I am waiting to hear what the IAFF increase is from 2009 onward, but I am assuming at the very least it will match the CUPE increase.

To sum up CUPE workers have been given a total 16.5% increase from 2007 - 2012 and IAFF workers have been given a 14% increase from 2007 to 2009.

It is unlikely that given the economic climate since 2008, few private sector employees have received anything approaching these levels of increase, as their employers have to compete in the market to simply stay in business. On the other hand municipaliies have no such constraints on their wage packages, as they simply raise taxes.

You could likely make the argument that given the increases enjoyed by these unions, it would not be unreasonable to have seen a 0% increase these past two years.

I would suspect such a suggestion might meet with strong resistance from the union sponsored councilors. The public sector is the last bastion of generous union wage and benefit increases, as they simply are not affected by the same pressures the economy brings to bear on the private sector.