Last week, the Alberta Labour Relations Board published their second new applications report of August 2026, which includes summaries of all applications they received between 2 August and 9 August 2026.
One of the applications was for commencing a proceeding.
Alberta Union of Provincial Employees filed the application on behalf of one of its members, whose employment was recently terminated by her employer, Aramark Canada Ltd.
She was employed at HolSome Place in Edmonton, a 136-bed continuing care facility owned by LeeCaring Communities. Aramark has a contract with LeeCaring to provide food, housekeeping, laundry and linen, transport, supply-chain, and operations and maintenance services.
Workers at this facility filed for union certification in January 2025, which they won the following month after their application was approved and a majority of participating workers voted in favour of unionizing.
The worker who lost her job, according to the summary provided by the labour board in their report, was “a strong and compelling pro-union voice”. She sat as an alternate of the bargaining committee, which is still trying to negotiate a first agreement for these workers.
AUPE argued in their application that when Aramark brought the worker in for “her interrogation and . . . her discipline outcome meeting” last month, they never informed the union and deprived the worker of her right to union representation at the meeting.
Further, AUPE claims that Aramark terminating her employment was purposefully done to “delegitimize collective bargaining and lawful union activity and union representation”.
As such, they allege that these action violate several section of Alberta’s Labour Relations Code.
No employer or employers’ organization and no person acting on behalf of an employer or employers’ organization shall participate in or interfere with the formation or administration of a trade union or the representation of employees by a trade union
Labour Relations Code, 148.1.a.i & 148.1.a.ii
No employer or employers’ organization and no person acting on behalf of an employer or employers’ organization shall refuse to employ or to continue to employ any person or discriminate against any person in regard to employment or any term or condition of employment because the person is a member of a trade union or an applicant for membership in a trade union, has indicated in writing the person’s selection of a trade union to be the bargaining agent on the person’s behalf, has testified or otherwise participated in or may testify or otherwise participate in a proceeding under this Act, or has exercised any right under this Act;
Labour Relations Code, 149.1.a.i, 149.1.a.ii, 149.1.a.iv & 149.1.a.viii
No employer or employers’ organization and no person acting on behalf of an employer or employers’ organization shall seek by intimidation, dismissal, threat of dismissal or any other kind of threat, by the imposition of a pecuniary or other penalty or by any other means, to compel an employee to refrain from becoming or to cease to be a member, officer or representative of a trade union
Labour Relations Code, 149.1.c
No employer or employers’ organization and no person acting on behalf of an employer or employers’ organization shall discriminate against a person in regard to employment or membership in a trade union or intimidate or threaten to dismiss or in any other manner coerce a person or impose a pecuniary or other penalty on a person, because the person has testified or otherwise participated in or may testify or otherwise participate in a proceeding authorized or permitted under a collective agreement or a proceeding under this Act, has made or is about to make a disclosure that the person may be required to make in a proceeding authorized or permitted under a collective agreement or a proceeding under this Act, or has made an application or filed a complaint under this Act.
Labour Relations Code, 149.1.g
That last one is particularly interesting: it implies that this worker had testified or was planning to testify in a hearing regarding unionization or bargaining.
Because the ALRB does not archive their new application reports, I have included a copy of this week’s report below for your convenience.
