Last year, I wrote an article about care home workers in Edmonton filing a union certification application.
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 Communities. Aramark has a contract with LeeCaring to provide food, housekeeping, laundry and linen, transport, supply-chain, and operations and maintenance services.
At the time, that application was for all 27 workers employed by Aramark at this location.
The Alberta Labour Relations Board held a certification vote, a majority of affected workers voted in favour of unionizing, and the labour board certified the workers as a bargaining unit on 10 February 2025.
The workers elected their bargaining team, which spent the next few months collecting feedback from their fellow workers on the priorities they should focus on in negotiations.
Four issues emerged from this feedback as the primary focus for bargaining.
Unsurprisingly, the top issue was wages, with 94% of participants saying that they were not making enough to cover basic costs, such as food and housing.
In addition, half of the respondents said they get only part-time hours, but both part-time and full-time workers are concerned that their work hours are unstable. In fact, 83% said that their income is unreliable because of how much inconsistency there is in their hours.
Which brings us to the second pillar: scheduling. Workers said they wanted regular, consistent schedules, with the option for more hours based on seniority. They want to be paid for all work done, as too often there have been times when workers have had to stay past their scheduled shift but were not compensated for the extra time.
Third, workers reported to their bargaining committee that they were expected to complete training on their own time, which meant not getting paid for dedicating their time to work-related endeavours.
Finally, the workers were not receiving a premium for working late shifts or weekend shifts, and this ended up being the fourth priority heading into negotiations. On top of that, some workers said that hardly anyone gets weekends off, so most workers have to work weekend but are not compensated for the extra sacrifice.
The workers’ bargaining team met with the employer to begin bargaining this past January. Aramark agreed to most of the non-monetary proposals put forth by the workers, such as the term of the agreement, common definitions, union rights, management rights, anti-discrimination, probationary period (420 hours), and seniority.
Negotiations resumed in March, and the workers’ bargaining team had hope to kick off monetary talks then. Unfortunately, Aramark said their hands were tied and they needed to get talk to LeeCaring first, even though it had been nearly 2 months since they last met.
When the parties met again in April, they focused on hours of work proposals. According to an update from the bargaining team at the time, only 6 workers are classified as full-time and most workers have no guaranteed minimum hours of work.
The two parties did not meet again until July. Unfortunately, by that time Aramark terminated the employment of a worker who was pro-union and who sat on the contract negotiating team as an alternate. That threw a wrench into negotiations and AUPE filed a unionbusting complaint with ALRB.
After a negotiation session last week, the two parties realized that they were not going to reach a tentative agreement on their own and applied for formal mediation.
They had exchanged monetary proposals, which were close but not close enough.
| Aramark | Workers | |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 3.00% | 3.00% |
| 2027 | 2.50% | 3.00% |
| 2028 | 2.50% | 3.00% |
| 8.00% | 9.00% |
Plus, the workers also proposed a minimum wage of $22.30 an hour for all positions, given that this is the living wage in Alberta, as of last year.
The workers’ bargaining team managed to convince the employer to agree to 3 paid days of bereavement leave for immediate family, with the option of a 2-day extension, as well as a 1 day paid leave for extended family or close friend. They also agreed to 5 days of unpaid leave to tend to family illness or other pressing need.
Still outstanding are work hours, overtime, shift differentials, pay premiums, named holidays, paid vacation, sick leave, retirement plans, and health benefits.
