Calgary car rental workers file to unionize

Earlier this week, the Alberta Labour Relations Board published their second new applications report for June 2025. In it was an application for union certification.

Local 362 of the Teamsters filed the application on 2 June 2025 on behalf of workers employed by Hertz Canada Ltd at their Calgary International Airport location.

The ALRB has scheduled a hearing for this application, which will occur next Monday (16th). During the hearing, the employer will have a chance to present arguments as to why these workers shouldn’t be able to unionize with Local 362.

And the likelihood that such arguments exist is pretty high. Local 362 filed another application the following day, but this time alleging that Hertz Canada is trying to interfere with the unionization process.

They claim that the employer has been holding one-on-one meetings with workers to try to find out which of them were involved with the unionization drive. Apparently, they’d ask the workers what they knew about the campaign details and who had signed in support of the application.

Local 362 claims that these actions violate Alberta’s Labour Relations Code, specifically section 148

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

and 149

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

If all goes well at the application hearing, however, then the ALRB will hold a certification vote, during which time, the workers will be able to vote on whether to join Local 362.

For workers to file a certification application with the ALRB, they must demonstrate that at least 40% of the current workforce support unionization. In this case, that would be 14 workers.

Assuming all 14 of them follow through and vote in favour of voting, they’d need only another 4 of their fellow workers to vote with them to win the certification.

If Local 362 is successful in unionizing these 3 dozen or so workers, it would be Hertz’s first car rental location to do so.

Should the workers approve the certification, their next step will be to form a bargaining committee and begin negotiating their first collective agreement with Hertz Canada Ltd.

Because the ALRB doesn’t archive their new applications reports, I’ve included a copy of this week’s report below for your convenience.

Update (17 June 2025): The Alberta Worker obtained a copy of an application that McCarthy Tétrault LLP submitted to the ALRB claiming that workers were being coerced into signing a “Union petition form” to indicate support for unionizing this workplace. Their application alleges that the so-called coercion is coming from their fellow workers, who the law firm labels as “union organizers”, which seems to imply they have a more direct connection with the Teamsters than they actually have. The law firm claims that the actions violate the Labour Relations Code and that they want the ALRB to, among other things, declare “that the union has violated the code” and issue “an order that the union cease and desist in violating the code”, even though they never provided evidence that the Teamsters were directly coercing these workers or even directing those who allegedly were; all the evidence they provided point to fellow workers coercing, not the union. They also want the ALRB to outright dismiss the application for union certification as a result of what they’re claiming.