Last week, the Alberta Labour Relations Board published their final new applications report for February 2024. In it was an application for another union certification.
Local 4050 of Unifor filed the application on 22 February 2024 on behalf of workers employed at CF Industries.
An American company based out of Illinois, CF Industries manufactures hydrogen and nitrogen products for clean energy, fertilizer, emissions abatement, and other industrial applications. Their keystone product is anhydrous ammonia, and they are the world’s largest producer of ammonia on a gross ammonia basis.
CF Industries has two locations in Alberta: a distribution terminal in the northwestern Alberta village of Rycroft and a production facility in Medicine Hat, which they acquired in 2013 after they purchased the remaining shares of Canadian Fertilizers, Ltd.
Local 4050 has focused their unionization efforts on the Medicine Hat facility, where workers produce up to 1.5 million tons of ammonia and granular urea for agricultural and industrial use every year. The facility is the largest nitrogen manufacturing complex in Canada.
According the application summary provided by the ALRB, this certification would apply to 105 workers at the facility: basically everyone except those workers employed in office, administration, clerical, health and safety, sales, and security.
The ALRB has scheduled a hearing for tomorrow, during which time CF Industries can argue why think these workers shouldn’t be able to democratically indicate whether to join Local 4050.
If the ALRB approves the application, they will organize a certification vote, during which time the workers will be indicate whether they want to unionize with Local 4050.
Because the ALRB doesn’t archive their new applications reports, I’ve included a copy of last week’s report below.
