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 1 of the International Union of Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers filed the application on 29 April 2025 for workers employed by Tanners Holding Inc., otherwise known as Tanners Masonry.
The Calgary-based employer specializes in natural stone masonry installations for residential, commercial, and industrial clients.
Technically, the application was actually 3 applications, one for “general construction masonry bricklayers”, “one for all maintenance masonry bricklayers”, and “one for non construction masonry bricklayers”.
The ALRB has scheduled a hearing for tomorrow, during which time, the employer will have a chance to argue why the think these workers shouldn’t unionize with Bricklayers Local 1.
If the ALRB approves the application, the 21 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 5 workers. Assuming they all follow through and vote in favour of unionizing, they’d need to convince just 6 more workers to vote with them and the certification passes.
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.
