Last week, the Alberta Labour Relations Board published its final new applications report for August 2026. It covered applications they received between the 23rd and the 30th.
In the report was the summary of an application for union certification.
The Health Sciences Association of Alberta—which represents about 30,000 paramedical technical, professional and general support employees in Albert’s healthcare sector—filed the application on 25 August.
They have applied to become the union for all the workers employed by the Sexual Assault Centre of Edmonton.
Workers at SACE provide an extensive range of support services for people who experience sexual violence—including crisis support, counselling, court support, and advocacy—as well public education and advisory consultation as a way to prevent sexual violence.
According the the ALRB’s summary, this would include 33 workers.
To apply for certification in Alberta, a union must demonstrate support from at least 40% of the workers who would belong to the proposed bargaining unit. In this case, that would be 14 workers.
The ALRB has scheduled a hearing for this Wednesday (9th), during which time, representatives from the employer will have a change to present arguments, if they have any, as to why these workers should not unionize with HSAA.
Listed as employer contacts in ALRB’s summary were Lena Betker and Rachel Grehan, both of whom are co-chief executive officers for SACE.
Should the ALRB approve the application, they will hold a certification vote and workers will be able to democratically determine whether to unionize.
Assuming the 14 workers I mentioned previously follow through with their initial support and vote in favour of unionizing, they would need to convince just 3 more of their fellow workers to join them in order to win.
If a majority of the workers approve unionizing and the ALRB certifies their bargaining unit, one of their first orders of business will be to form a committee to begin negotiations on their first collective agreement.
Because the ALRB does not archive their new application reports, I have included a copy of last week’s below for your convenience.
