A couple of weeks ago, I wrote an article pointing out that the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees had accused Pure Casino Gaming Corp of terminating the employment of one of their Lethbridge workers.
Last April, the Alberta Labour Relations Board issued a certificate to the workers employed by Pure Casino Gaming Corp. in their Lethbridge casino.
As a result, these 150 or so workers are now members of the AUPE, and they represent the second unionized location owned by this employer.
AUPE originally filed for union certification back in December 2024, but it took so long to be certified because of an allegation that Pure Gaming had “arbitrarily” disciplined one of their Lethbridge workers because of “their membership in the Union”, “their support for the Union’s certification application”, and “their participation in the certification process”.
Then last month, they terminated the employment of one of their Lethbridge workers, who was an “active and vocal” promoter of the union, and her fellow workers had democratically elected her to their bargaining team. She also testified at a hearing with the ALRB regarding unionization.
AUPE claimed that they dismissed her from her job as a way to “punish” here, to “intimidate other employees”, and to “delegitimize collective bargaining, lawful union activity, union representation, and undermine the credibility of the union and the collective bargaining process”.
This was the second time they had disciplined a union organizer, the first instance occuring about a year ago, before the workers had voted in favour of unionizing, as a way to convince workers that being in a union would be bad for them.
Well, it seems they have done it again.
Last week, the Alberta Labour Relations Board published their first new applications report of March 2026.
The Alberta Union of Provincial Employees filed the application on 25 February 2026 on behalf of two workers employed by Pure Casino at this same casino.
Pure Casino Gaming Corp., which is based out of Edmonton, operates 4 casinos in Alberta: 2 in Edmonton and 1 each in Calgary and Lethbridge. Pure Casino Gaming, 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 application summary provided by the ALRB, one of the two workers had their employment terminated and the other received a disciplinary letter.
The summary mentions only their last names—Bastien and Garinger—but people with those same last names are listed in media releases on the AUPE website as members of the bargaining team trying to negotiate a first collective agreement for the Lethbridge casino workers.
AUPE claims, according to the application summary, that Bastien and Garinger were “deprived” of being able to have union representation at their individual disciplinary meetings.
Plus, apparently, Pure Casino never notified AUPE that were conducting disciplinary investigations on Bastien and Garinger. As a result, they “were deprived of Union representation throughout the [entire] investigative process”.
Unsurprisingly, the union has alleged that Garinger’s termination and Bastien’s disciplinary letter were specifically because they sat on the bargaining committee, as well as their “active and vocal promotion” of the union and Garinger’s testimony at an ALRB hearing.
They said that this was done purposefully—to “intimidate other employees” and “delegitimize collective bargaining”.
Because of these actions, AUPE argue in their application that Pure Casino has violated several sections of Alberta’s Labour Relations Code.
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
Labour Relations Code, 148.1.a.i and 148.1.a.ii
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 testified or otherwise participated in or may testify or otherwise participate in a proceeding under this
Labour Relations Code, 149.1.a.i, 149.1.a.ii, and 149.1.a.iv
No employer or employers’ organization and no person acting on behalf of an employer or employers’ organization shall impose any condition in a contract of employment that restrains, or has the effect of restraining, an employee from exercising any right conferred on the employee by this Act
Labour Relations Code, 149.1.b
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
Labour Relations Code, 149.1.c
No employer or employers’ organization and no person acting on behalf of an employer or employers’ organization shall discriminate against a person in regard to employment or membership in a trade union or intimidate or threaten to dismiss or in any other manner coerce a person or impose a pecuniary or other penalty on a person, because the person has testified or otherwise participated in or may testify or otherwise participate in a proceeding authorized or permitted under a collective agreement or a proceeding under this Act
Labour Relations Code, 149.1.g.i
There is no hearing date for this application listed in the ALRB’s current hearing schedule.
The total number of Lethbridge workers disciplined by Pure Casino Gaming Corp since the union drive started over a year ago is now 4, half of which have lost their jobs.
