Earlier this week, the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees emailed some of its members to let them know that over 100 provincial government are about to lose union representation.
According to the email, the Government of Alberta plans to transfer 113 workers from the Service Alberta and Red Tape Reduction department to the Public Service Commission.
SARTC workers are members of AUPE, and as such, they are part of a bargaining unit and able to negotiate and approve their collective agreement.
Public Service Commission workers, however, have no union representation.
The workers affected would be those in the following positions:
- Administration 1
- Administration 2
- Administrative Support 3
- Administrative Support 4
- Administrative Support 5
- Administrative Support 6
- Finance 2
- Program Services 3
- Program Services 4
AUPE claims that the transfer is supposed to occur a week from now, on 1 April 2026.
The union has filed a a policy grievance with the Alberta Labour Relations Board to prevent the transfer from happening, as they feel that the employer should have disclosed these plans during the bargaining process.
They have also filed an unfair labour practice complaint with the ALRB, since they consider this failure to disclose during bargaining to be bad faith bargaining.
Finally, they have filed a request for an interim cease and desist order, which, if approved, would be in place until the other requests have been processed.
I have included a copy of this email below for your convenience.
