Earlier this week, the Alberta Labour Relations Board published their latest new applications report for January 2025. In it was an application for union certification.
The Alberta Union of Provincial Employees filed the application on 16 January on behalf of workers employed by Aramark Canada Ltd.
These workers are employed at HolSome Place in Edmonton, a 136-bed continuing care facility owned by LeeCaring Coumminities. Aramark has a contract with LeeCaring to provide food, housekeeping, laundry and linen, transport, supply-chain, and operations and maintenance services.
This application is for all 27 workers employed by Aramark at this location.
ALRB has scheduled a hearing for this application, which will occur next Thursday (30th), during which, Aramark will have a chance to argue why they think any or all of the workers shouldn’t unionize with AUPE.
For a union to apply for union certification, they must show evidence of at least 40% of the workers are interested in unionizing, which in this case, would be 11.
If the ALRB approves the application and holds a certification vote, assuming the 11 workers who support unionization continue to support it, they would need only 3 more workers to reach a majority of the workforce there and approve unionization.
Should the unionization go through, the first order of business for these workers will be to organize a bargaining committee to begin negotiating their first collective agreement.
Because the ALRB doesn’t archive their new application reports, I’ve included a copy of this report below for your convenience.
