Back in December, I wrote an article about workers at Casino Lethbridge trying to organize their workplace.
Well, now they seemed to hit a bit of a hiccup.
The original application for union certification was filed with the Alberta Labour Relations Board by The Alberta Union of Provincial Employees, which is hoping to represent about 150 workers at the casino.
Pure Casino Gaming Corp. runs this casino. In fact, the Edmonton-based company operates 3 other casinos in the province: 2 in Edmonton and 1 each in Calgary.
Their Calgary location has been unionized since June 2004, represented by Local 4655 of the Canadian Union of Public Employees.
The company, in turn, is owned by ONCAP, a mid-market private equity platform of Onex, which is itself a Toronto-based investment management company.
According to the ALRB’s final new applications report of January 2025, AUPE has filed a new application, but this time accusing the employer of unionbusting.
They didn’t use that term though. Instead, they disciplines one of their workers, and the AUPE claim that the discipline was directly related to that worker’s involvement with the unionization process.
According to the application, the AUPE claimed that the worker was disciplined “arbitrarily” because of “their membership in the Union”, “their support for the Union’s certification application”, and “their participation in the certification process”.
The ALRB’s summary of application doesn’t specify what that discipline was, and when I reached out to the AUPE for more details, they refused to share anything beyond what was in the summary.
Further, the application summary indicates that the AUPE also claims that the discipline was Pure Casino Gaming’s attempt at compelling workers from unionizing.
AUPE accuses Pure Casino of violating 6 sections of the Alberta Labour Relations Code: 148.1.a.i, 148.1.a.ii, 149.1.a.i, 149.1.a.ii, 149.1.a.viii, and 149.1.c.
No employer or employers’ organization and no person acting on behalf of an employer or employers’ organization shall participate in or interfere with the formation or administration of a trade union, or the representation of employees by a trade union.
No employer or employers’ organization and no person acting on behalf of an employer or employers’ organization shall refuse to employ or to continue to employ any person or discriminate against any person in regard to employment or any term or condition of employment because the person is a member of a trade union or an applicant for membership in a trade union, has indicated in writing the person’s selection of a trade union to be the bargaining agent on the person’s behalf, . . . [or] has exercised any right under this Act.
No employer or employers’ organization and no person acting on behalf of an employer or employers’ organization shall seek by intimidation, dismissal, threat of dismissal or any other kind of threat, by the imposition of a pecuniary or other penalty or by any other means, to compel an employee to refrain from becoming or to cease to be a member, officer or representative of a trade union.
The ALRB has scheduled a hearing for this application, during which time, the employer will have a chance to argue against these claims and the union will be able to further establish their case. The hearing is scheduled for this Friday.
Because the ALRB doesn’t archive their weekly new applications reports, I’ve included this report below for your convenience.
One reply on “Lethbridge casino accused of unionbusting”
Pure absolutely has tried n abused staff many left because of these practices. Some international students are afraid to speak up as they are not given information about their rights in Canada n Pure counts on that !