Six unions, six expired contracts.

By July, another three labour agreements are set to run out, at which point, no unionized City of Calgary worker will be under contract.

Welcome to 2009, a year that's looking as attractive as the business end of a shotgun, if you're one of the poor saps at the negotiating table, or one of the even sadder slobs relying on city services.

What city services?

Try transit, recreation, garbage collection and snow-clearing, along with anything that goes on inside city hall, including licences, permits and plans.

The police union is also without a contract as of Monday, but unlike most city workers, they are deemed an essential service, meaning that while officers can refuse to dress properly and the like, they can't go on strike.

Not that anyone is using the chilling S-word just yet, when negotiations are ongoing, and diplomacy is still possible.

But this being the City of Calgary, the threat of job action is always there -- it was only 18 months ago that the local transit union cancelled a strike at the eleventh hour, when a desperate, last-ditch deal was reached with the city.

That bitterly fought contract is one of those expiring in July -- a nice time for walking and cycling, incidentally.

It'll be that much harder to reach deals with workers who've waited for a chance to push their pay and benefits to peaks set by a blistering economy.

Of course, that blister has burst just as the contracts have expired en masse.

The city can't really afford to sign generous contract settlements, but the workers can't afford not to.

All in all, when it comes to union woes and worries, 2009 couldn't be looking worse for the good citizens of Calgary.

And yet, it is worse, much worse, thanks to a city council with the flexibility of a concrete comforter.

With a couple of laudable exceptions -- Ray Jones, for one, says he will donate his aldermanic raise to a scholarship fund -- council accepted this year's 5.5% salary hike with a collective shrug.

Just following the rules, they said, tacking the $5,000 onto their $92,000 salaries.

True, the raise is determined by an independent board and based on Statistics Canada's average salary increase for Albertans, but the decision to accept the cash was made by the mayor and aldermen.

It's a raise based on a economy that started strong and then withered -- more flexible politicians would have refused the money as an example of belt-tightening and battening the hatches.

Edmonton Mayor Stephen Mandel did, turning down his 5.5% hike.

Calgary's Dave Bronconnier took the money -- and then he took a taunting jab at the city's unions, who are already lining up to demand the same raise.

Let an independent board determine union contracts based on the annual economy, Canada's highest-paid mayor said yesterday, and the 5.5% is yours.

Bronconnier's badgering of nearly 5,000 workers without a contract will have those at the negotiation tables wincing -- as will this column, for at least one alderman.

Ald. Gord Lowe says that negotiations with city unions always leave him on edge, particularly when they escape the quiet confines of city hall for the volatile pages of the press.

"A good chunk of our workforce is unsigned -- it's always a worry, and it often comes back to what the media says," said Lowe.

The 5.5% raise, having become fodder for headlines and news stories, has Calgarians lashing out in anger and union bosses looking on with great expectations, said Lowe.

"The hue and cry from the public has been quite remarkable," he said.

"The unions will take a look at what's coming council's way, and so it will unfold."

Unwilling to set an example by showing the flexibility to just say no in the face of a faltering economy, city council has made a 5.5% wage hike the standard for the battles to come.

John Dooks, head of the Calgary Police Association, said city council's wage is the benchmark for all unions.

"Absolutely. Obviously, that kind of increase is something we will be targeting," said Dooks.