Last week, the Alberta Labour Relations Board published their third new applications report of June 2026. In it was an application regarding unionbusting.
Technically, the summary provided by the ALRB in their report never used the term unionbusting, but it seems pretty clear.
Local 2559 of the Canadian Union of Provincial Employees filed the application with the ALRB on 10 June 2026.
In November 2025, they began trying to unionize workers employed by YMCA of Northern Alberta after one of the workers reached out to them.
According to the application summary provided by the ALRB, YMCA of Northern Alberta terminated the employment of 3 workers, all of whom were involved in the unionization drive.
CUPE 2559 claims that other YMCA workers have felt intimidated by the actions of YMCA and that terminations violated several sections of Albert’s Labour Relations 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 representation of employees by a trade union.Labour Relations Code, 148.1.a.ii
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, or has exercised any right under this ActLabour Relations Code, 149.1.a.i, 149.1.a.ii, and 149.1.a.viii
No employer or employers’ organization and no person acting on behalf of an employer or employers’ organization shall 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 unionLabour Relations Code, 149.1.c
This is not the first time the YMCA terminated the employment of someone involved in the union drive. In fact, back in January, they allegedly laid off the worker who spearheaded the entire thing and had reached out to CUPE.
Listed in the summary as the employer contact is Kara Boulton, who is listed on LinkedIn as program managet at YMCA of Northern Alberta.
Because the ALRB does not archive their new applications reports, I have included a copy of last week’s report below for your convenience.
