Last week, the Alberta Labour Relations Board published its fourth new applications report for March 2026. In it was an application for union certification.
Technically, it was actually two applications
Local 2404 of the Pile Drivers, Divers, Bridge, Dock & Wharf Builders Union filed both applications on 20 March for workers employed by Marathon Underground Constructors Corporation
Based out of Ontario, Marathon offers several services in underground construction, including design, engineering, management, geotechnical investigation, utility mapping, environmental assessment, risk management, and training.
The first application was for “all roadbuilding and heavy construction” workers, while the second application was for “all general construction employees except carpenters”. Both applications listed 56 as the number of workers who would fall under this new bargaining unit.
To submit a certification application in Alberta, workers or unions must demonstrate support among 40% of their coworkers. In this case, that would be 42 workers.
Should the ALRB approve this application, they would hold a certification vote, during which time, workers will be able to democratically choose whether to unionize with Local 2404.
Assuming the 24 workers follow through and vote in favour of unionizing, they would need to convince 4 other fellow workers to join them if they want to win the certification vote.
The ALRB has scheduled a hearing for this application, which will occur next Wednesday (the 8th). Marathon representatives will get a chance to present arguments, if they have any, as to why these workers should not be able to unionize with Local 2404.
If the workers vote in favour of unionizing, one of their first orders of business will be to form a bargaining committee to begin negotiating their first contract.
Because the ALRB does not archive their new application reports, I have included a copy of last week’s report below for your convenience.
