Last week, the Alberta Labour Relations Board published their first new applications report for May 2025. In it was a new application for union certification.
Local 424 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers filed the application on 29 April 2025 for workers employed by Fire Inspection Services Inc.
The Calgary-based employer offers fire equipment maintenance and inspection services.
Technically, the application was actually 3 applications, one for “general construction electricians”, “one for all maintenance electricians”, and “one for non construction electricians”.
The ALRB has scheduled a hearing for today, during which time, the employer will have a chance to argue why the think these workers shouldn’t unionize with Local 424.
If the ALRB approves the application, the 3 workers who’d be affected by it will democratically vote on whether to join the union.
To file a certification vote with the ALRB, a union must show evidence that at least 40% of the workers covered by the proposed bargaining unit actually support unionizing.
In this case, that would be 2 workers. Assuming they all follow through and vote in favour of unionizing, they alone could approve the certification.
If the workers do vote in favour of unionizing, their first step will be to organize a bargaining team so they can begin negotiating their first collective agreement.
Because the ALRB doesn’t archive their new applications reports, I’ve included a copy of this one below.
