Earlier this week, the Alberta Labour Relations Board published their latest new applications report for August 2025. In it was an application for union certification.
Local 955 of the International Union of Operating Engineers, otherwise known as IUOE, filed the application on 8 August 2025 in behlaf of workers employed by Dufferin Construction Company.
A division of the Ireland-based CRH Canada Group Inc, Dufferin provides construction solutions to complex infrastructure projects across Canada.
The union has applied to represent all workers employed in Alberta by Dufferin, except for those working in office, quality control, sales, or supervisory roles. However, it would include foremen.
According to the report summary for this application, only 4 workers would qualify to be represented by this proposed bargaining unit.
For a union to apply for certification over a bargaining unit, they must demonstrate support for unionization from 40% of the workers who would fall under the bargaining unit. In this case, that would be 2 workers.
The ALRB has scheduled a hearing for this application. It will occur next Friday (22nd) and will be an opportunity for Dufferin to argue, if they choose to, why they think these workers should be unable to join Local 955.
Should the ALRB approve the application, they will hold a certification vote, giving the workers a chance to vote on whether to unionize with Local 955.
Assuming the 2 workers who have already indicated support follow through and vote in favour of unionization, they would need to convince just one more worker to vote with them to certify them as a collective bargaining unit.
If the workers end up unionizing, their first step will be to form a bargaining committee to begin negotiating their first collective agreement with Dufferin.
Because the ALRB does not archive their new application reports, I have include a copy of this week’s report below for your convenience.
