50th Anniversary Trivia
1st Dental plan at Oilsands (Great Canadian Oil Sands as it was known at the time)
1976 forMcMurray Independent Oil Workers(the Union) Members only. The Union had proposed a Dental Plan as part of its bargaining proposals for a new Collective Agreement but were not successful in part because of AIB (see next answer). At the close of bargaining the Union said it would develop and install its own Dental Plan.
A plan was set up with Excelsior Life and became effective October 1, 1976 for Union Members who had signed up and were willing to pay the monthly premium. This required that a large majority of Members sign up.
The Union Executive all worked on recruiting of members for the plan but Neil Trafford (R.I.P) was the driving force.
It would be some years before the Company introduced a plan for all employees and the Union plan was dropped.
Wage and Price Controls
The Anti Inflation Act was proclaimed in 1975 and was intended to reduce inflation by limiting wage (and price) increases to specific amounts over a three year period - 10%, 8%, and 6%. The control process was entrusted to the Anti Inflation Board A.I.B.
8% was the stated target wage increase limit for 1976. The real target was a bit of a mystery as the AIB had an arithmetic formula in the guidelines. (more later)
Negotiations in 1976 were interesting in that a third party (AIB) would have to approve any wage settlement over 8%.(in fact the arithmetic formula provided for 9% (not as simple as x=y))(I think the trip to the moon was easier to calculate)
The principle parties to the deal understood that any settlement had to be competitive and explainable to the AIB. The resulting wage increase was above the guidelines by an estimated $0.30 per hour. This amount was withheld from wages and placed in an interest bearing trust pending approval from the AIB. Both parties agreed to support and recommend approval of terms of the Collective agreement to the AIB and further if either party was requested to provide more information or to appear before the Board, such submissions or appearances would be jointly made. In addition if subsequent Board rulings or modifications to the AIB permited alternate methods of securing the negotiated increases the parties would mutually develop and pursue such alternatives.
On January 21, 1977 a letter from the Board confirmed acceptance of the negotiated terms calculated at 12.33% versus guidelines of 9%. The increases were accepted because an historical relationship was demonstrated with the compensation plans of other groups of employees. The withheld wages were paid out and ongoing wages reflected the negotiated increases.
Bus fares to and from Plant site
Great Canadian Oil Sands contracted bus services to get employees to and from work. Employees were required to buy bus tickets when this service was introduced at plant start-up. The price was $0.20 per trip, $0.40 round trip.
The fare was reduced to $0.10 per one way trip as part of a negotiated settlement that ended an 11 day strike in 1969. This price remained until mid 1972.
In 1972 the ticket system was replaced by a no cost bus pass which doubled as an identification card. This change was included in the 1972 Collective Agreement.