Earlier this week, the Alberta Labour Relations Board published their final new applications report for July 2025. In it was an application for union certification.
Local 4731 of the Canadian Union of Public Employees filed the application on 24 July 2025 on behalf of workers employed by The Calgary Chinese Elderly Citizens’ Association.
Based in downtown Calgary, the non-profit organization has been providing services and programmes to Chinese older adults since 1985. They have over 2,000 members.
CUPE is attempting to organize workers employed by the organization, which they estimated to be about 25.
Before a union can submit an application for union certification, they must demonstrate that they have the support of at least 40% of the workers in that bargaining unit. That works out to 10 workers in this case.
The labour board has scheduled a hearing for this Friday (8th), during which time the employer can argue why they think these workers shouldn’t be able to join AUPE.
Should the ALRB approve the application, they will conduct a certification vote, allowing workers to democratically choose whether to join AUPE. Assuming all 10 of the workers who initially supported unionization vote in favour, they’d have to convince 3 of their fellow workers to do the same.
If the workers successfully unionize, their first step will be to elect a bargaining committee and begin negotiating a collective agreement.
Because the ALRB does not archive their new application reports, I have included a copy of this week’s report below for your reference.
