Earlier this week, the Alberta Labour Relations Board published their latest new applications report for September 2024. In it was an application for union certification.
Local 362 of the General Teamsters filed the application on 12 September on behalf of workers employed by Bluewater Group Limited.
Based out of Atlantic Canada, Bluewater provides industrial lubricant, supply chain, logistics, and ship chandlery services.
The application includes all the workers employed at Bluewater’s Edmonton location, except those in office, clerical, security, quality control, sales, or supervisory positions. This amounts to roughly 100 workers.
This isn’t the first time Local 362 has tried unionizing workers in the Edmonton area this year.
Back in March, they filed to unionize solar workers at BayWa R.E. Solar Systems and Salvation Army warehouse workers. Two months later, they tried to unionize Leduc road workers.
As well, in June, workers employed in the Fort McMurray area by Cougar Fuels also tried to unionize with Local 362.
The ALRB has scheduled a hearing for 26 September 2024, during which time, representatives from Bluewater will have a chance to argue why they think the workers shouldn’t be able to unionize with Local 362.
If the ALRB approves the application, they will hold a certification vote. Workers will have the opportunity to democratically choose whether to unionize.
Assuming a majority of the workers vote in favour of unionizing, their first step will be to form a bargaining committee to begin negotiating their first contract with their employer.
Because the ALRB doesn’t archive their new application reports, I’ve included a copy of this week’s report below.
