Calgary nurses trying to unionize

Earlier this week, the Alberta Labour Relations Board published a new applications report, which included applications that had been filed between the 13th and the 20th of this month.

Included in the report was an application from the United Nurses of Alberta for a union certification vote.

UNA filed their application on 16 October on behalf of workers employed by AgeCare Health Services Inc.

Based in Calgary, AgeCare manages over 50 aging-in-place facilities in Alberta, British Columbia, and Ontario.

Technically, these workers are employed by Aster Joint Venture Limited Partnership, which is a partnership between AgeCare and Axium Infrastructure, a Montreal-based portfolio investment firm.

This partnership, formed in 2021, shares ownership of 5 of AgeCare’s 5 facilities, and Aster operates 4 of those facilities: Sagewood, Skypointe, Sunrise Gardens, and Walden Heights.

That last one—Walden Heights—employs 21 workers in direct nursing or nursing instruction positions, and it is these workers that UNA is trying to unionize.

UNA already has collective agreements with AgeCare for workers employed at their Midnapore and Valleyview facilities; although both of those contracts expired shortly after being ratified in 2021.

Midnapore workers represented by UNA ratified another agreement in 2023, but it expired in August of last year. Valleyview nurses still have not ratified an agreement since their last one expired at the end of 2021.

The Alberta Union of Provincial Employees already represents general support workers at Walden Heights, such as receptionists, schedulers, administrative assistants, unit clerks, and maintenance workers. Their latest collective agreement expired this past June.

This might give readers an idea regarding how much Aster loves unionized workers.

For workers to apply for certification, they must demonstrate support for unionization among at least 40% of their coworkers. In this case, that would be 9 workers.

The ALRB has scheduled a hearing for this application. During this hearing, which is scheduled for next Thursday (30th), Aster will have a chance to put forth arguments, if any, as to why these workers should not be able to unionize with UNA.

Should the ALRB approve the application, they will conduct a certification vote, which will allow workers to democratically determine whether to unionize.

Assuming the 9 workers who initially indicated support for joining UNA vote in favour, they would need to convince just 2 more fellow workers to vote with them.

If a majority of the 21 workers do vote in favour of unionizing, one of their first items of business they will have is forming a bargaining team, so they can begin negotiating their first collective agreement.

Because the ALRB doesn’t archive their new application reports, I’ve included this report below.