Earlier this month, I wrote an article about Calgary workers employed by a local coffee shop chain trying to unionize.
Local 401 of the United Food and Commercial Workers filed the application back in January on behalf of around 30 workers employed by Caffe Rosso Inc.
The Calgary-based company, also known as Rosso Coffee Roasters, owns 5 cafe locations in Calgary.
There have been some delays in approving the application.
The first delay was when Caffe Rosso filed an application with the Alberta Labour Relations Board on the 5th of this month saying that a recent social media post from Local 401 was against Alberta’s Labour Relations Code.
Shortly after Local 401 filed their certification application, someone on their team posted to their social accounts welcoming these workers to their union. Since the ALRB has not certified this bargaining unit, they are not yet unionized with Local 401, so the employer claimed this amounted to pressuring workers to favour unionization.
Caffe Rosso submitted a second application a week later, on the 12th, complaining that the union (or at least someone affiliated with them) was trying to unionize workers at work during working hours without getting the employer’s permission, which they argue violates the Labour Relations Code.
No trade union and no person acting on behalf of a trade union shall, except with the consent of the employer of an employee, attempt, at an employee’s place of employment during the working hours of the employee, to persuade the employee to become, to refrain from becoming or to cease to be a member of a trade union
Labour Relations Code, 151.1.d
They also claimed that doing so constituted “coercion, intimidation,
threats, promises, or undue influence” as a way to encourage joining the union, which is also against the labour code.
No trade union and no person acting on behalf of a trade union shall use coercion, intimidation, threats, promises or undue influence of any kind with respect to any employee with a view to encouraging or discouraging membership or activity in or for a trade union including activity relating to making or revoking an election
Labour Relations Code, 151.1.f
Well, now another delay has emerged, and this time, however, it is the union that filed the application.
According to the Alberta Labour Relations Board’s final new applications report of February 2026, Local 401 filed an application on 17 February 2026 accusing Caffe Rosso of unionbusting.
To be fair, they never used the term unionbusting, but it sure does sound like unionbusting.
The application summary provided by the ALRB claims that Local 401 is alleging Caffe Rosso has been holding one-on-one meetings with some of their workers as a way to prevent unionization from going through.
One-on-one meetings are a common unionbusting tactic used by employers to discourage unionization. It undermines worker solidarity because the workers meet individually with the employer and they do not know what is said in the meetings with their fellow workers.
Local 401 believes that this violates the 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
Labour Relations Code, 148.1.a.i
They also accused Caffe Rosso of threatening and intimidating workers to not unionize, including possible job loss.
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
Sort of like a reverse UNO card against the employer’s attempt to accuse the union of using intimidation to get workers to unionize.
The Alberta Labour Relations Board has scheduled multiple hearing regarding these developments, the first of which is supposed to be held next Wednesday. Others will be held in April and May.
Because the ALRB does not archive their new application reports, I have included a copy of this week’s report below for your convenience.
