Last month, I wrote an article about workers in a work camp who have applied for union certification.
Well, I have an update.
They still are not unionized, but according to last week’s new applications report from the Alberta Labour Relations Board, the company is trying to unionbust.
Local 47 of UNITE HERE filed the certification application on 13 April on behalf of 94 workers employed by Horizon Camp & Catering Partnership.
Based out of Ontario, Horizon specializes in remote hospitality services and access solutions. They are one of 4 divisions of the Dexterra Group, which is also headquartered in Ontario.
According to the application summary provided by the ALRB in last month’s report, Local 47 would like to represent all of Horizon’s workers at Cenovus’s Sunrise Camp, except for managers, safety personnel, recreation coordinators, and those employed in the construction trades.
In last week’s new applications report published by the ALRB, which was the first report of May 2026, their summary indicated that Horizon recently terminated the employment of two workers: Yosef Mohammed and Adurkerim Edao.
ALRB’s summary did not say why their employment was terminated, but it did highlight several sections of Alberta’s Labour Relations Code that the applicant claimed the termination’s violated.
David Mercer, an associate with the Edmonton-based law firm, NRHM Law, filed the application with the ALRB on 28 April 2026.
According to the summary, Mercer claims that Horizon’s termination of these workers’ employment violates the following sections of the code.
No employer or employers’ organization and no person acting on behalf of an employer or employers’ organization shall participate in or interfere with the formation or administration of a trade union, or the representation of employees by a trade union.
Labour Relations Code, 148.1.a
No employer or employers’ organization and no person acting on behalf of an employer or employers’ organization shall refuse to employ or to continue to employ any person or discriminate against any person in regard to employment or any term or condition of employment because the person is a member of a trade union or an applicant for membership in a trade union, has indicated in writing the person’s selection of a trade union to be the bargaining agent on the person’s behalf, has been expelled or suspended from membership in a trade union for a reason other than a failure to pay the union dues, assessments and initiation fees uniformly required to be paid by all members of the trade union as a condition of acquiring or retaining membership in the trade union, has testified or otherwise participated in or may testify or otherwise participate in a proceeding under this Act, has made or is about to make a disclosure that the person may be required to make in a proceeding under this Act, has made an application or filed a complaint under this Act, has participated in any strike that is permitted by this Act, or has exercised any right under this Act
Labour Relations Code, 149.1.a
No employer or employers’ organization and no person acting on behalf of an employer or employers’ organization shall impose any condition in a contract of employment that restrains, or has the effect of restraining, an employee from exercising any right conferred on the employee by this Act; seek by intimidation, dismissal, threat of dismissal or any other kind of threat, by the imposition of a pecuniary or other penalty or by any other means, to compel an employee to refrain from becoming or to cease to be a member, officer or representative of a trade union; suspend, discharge or impose any financial or other penalty on an employee, or take any other disciplinary action against an employee, by reason of that employee’s having refused to perform an act prohibited by this Act
Labour Relations Code, 149.1.b, 149.1.c & 149.1.d
No employer or employers’ organization and no person acting on behalf of an employer or employers’ organization shall discriminate against a person in regard to employment or membership in a trade union or intimidate or threaten to dismiss or in any other manner coerce a person or impose a pecuniary or other penalty on a person, because the person has testified or otherwise participated in or may testify or otherwise participate in a proceeding authorized or permitted under a collective agreement or a proceeding under this Act, has made or is about to make a disclosure that the person may be required to make in a proceeding authorized or permitted under a collective agreement or a proceeding under this Act, or has made an application or filed a complaint under this Act.
Labour Relations Code, 149.1.g.i, 149.1.g.ii & 149.1.g.iii
Listed in the application summary as an employer representative are Roger Carlos and Laura Cote.
Zoominfo lists Carlos as director of human resources at Dexterra, as well as a business partner.
According to one LinkedIn profile with the same name, Cote appears to be the director of operations–oilsands for Dexterra but is also listed as both general manager and operations manager for Horizon.
The ALRB has scheduled a hearing of 22 May 2026 to hear arguments from Horizon and Mercer regarding this case.
Because the ALRB does not archive their new application reports, I have included a copy of last week’s report for your information.
