Last week, the Alberta Labour Relations Board published their first new applications report of December 2024. In it was an application for union certification.
Local 1007 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers submitted the application on 26 November 2024 on behalf of all the workers employed by the Sherwood Park Fish & Game Association, except the executive director.
One of the largest fish and game clubs, the Sherwood Park Fish & Game Association is a recreation and conservation organization. They oversee the management of 720 acres of mostly undeveloped wildland.
The property includes several gun ranges, an archery range, a fish pond, a clubhouse, a campground, and several trails, which the organization manages.
Local 1007 of the IBEW currently represents workers employed with Epcor, Capital Power, the City of Edmonton, IBEW Local 424, Employee Benefit Funds Administration Ltd, and the Electrical Industry Training Centres of Alberta.
If the ALRB approves the application, the 5 workers affected by it will have the chance to vote on whether to join Local 1007.
For unions to file a certification application with the ALRB, they must demonstrate that 40% of the workers who’d be part of the proposed bargaining unit support the certification.
In this case, that’s only 2 workers, which means they’d need just one more to vote in favour for it to be a majority.
The ALRB has scheduled a hearing for tomorrow regarding the application, during which time, represenatives from the fish and game association will be able to present reasons, if they have any, why these workers shouldn’t join Local 1007.
If all goes well, the ALRB will approve the application and conduct a certification vote. If at least 3 of the 5 workers vote in favour of certification, then the ALRB will approve it and issue them a certification number.
Once officially unionized, if that’s what happens, the first action for these workers will be to form a bargaining committee and begin negotiating their first collective agreement.
Because the ALRB doesn’t archive their new application reports, I’ve included a copy of this one below for your convenience.
Update (17 January 2025): The ALRB issued a certificate for these workers today, officially making this location an unionized workplace.
