Last month, the Alberta Labour Relations Board published their final new applications report of April 2026. It covered all the applications they received between the 21st and 26th of April.
In it was an application for union certification.
The Alberta Union of Provincial Employees filed the application on the 24th in behalf of workers employed by The Brenda Strafford Foundation Ltd.
Created in 1975, the foundation owns 5 facilities where about 1,200 workers provide long-term and assisted living care in Calgary and Okotoks.
AUPE has applied to the ALRB to have a new bargaining unit certified, which would represent all workers employed at the organization’s Tudor Manor location in so-called “auxiliary nurisng care”. They claim the proposed bargaining unit would cover nearly 150 workers.
Tudor Manor is a 152-unit facility in Okotoks, where the workers provide supportive living and long-term care services to residents who live there.
Typically, auxiliary nursing workers would include licensed practical nurses and health care aides.
To apply for union certification in Alberta, unions must demonstrate that at least 40% of the workers to be represented by the proposed bargaining unit support unionization. In this case, that would be just 59 workers.
The ALRB has scheduled a hearing for later today, during which the Brenda Strafford Foundation will be able to present arguments, if they have any, as to why these 147 workers should not unionize with AUPE.
Should the labour board approve the application, they will hold a certification vote, and the workers will be able to democratically choose whether to unionize. Assuming the 59 workers I mentioned earlier follow through and vote in favour of unionizing, they would need to convince 15 more fellow workers to join them.
If a majority of the workers vote in favour of unionizing and the ALRB certifies their bargaining unit, one of their first acts of business will be to elect their bargaining committee and begin negotiating their first collective agreement.
The union already represents nearly 400 workers at the foundation’s Clifton House and Wentworth Manor facilities.
Because the ALRB does not archive their new application reports, I have included a copy of last week’s report below.
