Last week, the Alberta Labour Relations Board published their second new application report of July 2026, which covers all applications submitted between 5 to 12 July 2026.
In the application was a summary of an application for union certification.
Local 1158 of the Canadian Union of Public Employees filed the application on 8 July 2026 for workers employed by CapitalCare.
Based out Edmonton, CapitalCare is one of the largest public continuing care organizations in Canada. Their workers operate 10 care homes in the Edmonton area, as well as various day programmes, palliative care, rehabilitative care, and restorative care services.
The application was specifically for pharmacy assistants employed at CapitalCare’s Dickinsfield Campus, which includes housing for 275 long-term care residents, facilities for adults aged 18-65, group homes for disabled adults aged 18–59, and a young adult day support program for adults with physical, emotional or social limitations.
According to the application, this certification request is specifically for 8 pharmacy assistants working in the Dickinsfield Campus.
CUPE 1158 already represents hundreds of other workers at the Dickinsfield Campus, including support workers, drivers, housekeepers, porters, therapy assistants, and workers employed in laundry, maintenance, the kitchen, and logistics.
Those workers have been without a new collective agreement for over 3 years, ever since their last one expired in June 2023.
For a union to file a certification application, they must demonstrate support from at least 40% of the workers to be represented by the proposed bargaining unit. In this case, that would be 4 workers.
The ALRB has scheduled a hearing for this Wednesday. Representatives from the employer will have a chance at the hearing to present arguments, if they have any, as to why these workers should be unable to unionize with Local 1158.
Listed as an employer contact in the report was Ian Caldwell, a human resources manager with CapitalCare.
Should the ALRB approve the application, they will hold a certification vote, and the workers will be able to democratically choose whether to unionize with Local 1158.
Assuming the 4 workers I mentioned earlier follow through on their initial support and vote in favour of unionizing, they would need to convince just 1 more of their fellow workers to join them if they want to win.
If a majority of workers vote in favour of unionizing, one of their first orders of business will be to elect a bargaining committee, so they can begin negotiating a collective agreement.
That being said, Local 1158 submitted another application to request the pharmacy assistants be included in the existing bargaining unit at this location, which means they could be part of the current negotiations process.
