Last month, I wrote an article regarding dairy workers at WD Processing filing with the Alberta Labour Relations Board to unionize.
The company is the operational contractor for a milk concentration plant that officially began operations last October near Blackfalds. The plant is owned by Dairy Innovation West, but the processed milk product belongs to Alberta Milk, representing the Western Milk Pool (BC Milk, BC Dairy, Alberta Milk, SaskMilk, and Dairy Farmers of Manitoba).
Workers at the Blackfalds plant use reverse osmosis and ultra filtration technologies to process raw milk directly from dairy farms.
Interestingly, Local 401 of the United Food and Commercial workers claims that this plant provides milk to Foothills Creamery, which they are also in the middle of trying to unionize.
Local 401 filed the application on 7 April 2026 for the dozen or so workers employed by WD Processing.
In a social media post on 5 May 2026 (which, coincidentally, is my 31st wedding anniversary), Local 401 announced that the workers who participated in the ALRB-supervised certification vote supported unionization.
In fact, every one of the workers who voted in the 30 April 2026 vite did so in favour of unionizing with Local 401.
According to the union, these workers include machine operators and those working in sanitation and maintenance.
I reached out to Scott Payne, who is Local 401’s director of communications and a senior advisor to the president of the local. The strong showing was unexpected.
Throughout the organizing process, there was a strong sense of unity among employees and a shared belief that having formal representation can help improve communication, retention, workplace stability, and long-term success for everyone involved.
Scott Payne, UFCW 401 director of communications
Payne also said that the workers unionized to give them a constructive voice in helping build a “stable, professional, and sustainable workplace” as the new facilities grows and matures.
“We all continue to take pride in the work being done at the facility, and look forward to building upon our productive relationship with management,” Payne added. “Ultimately, the facility has enormous potential for Western Canada’s dairy industry, and workers want to be constructive partners in helping it succeed long-term.”
The next step for these workers will be to elect their bargaining committee to begin negotiating their first collective agreement.
