Chris O’Halloran, Local 401’s executive director, describes the problem as a “technical issue” related to the electronic method of confirming the petition’s signatories for the Alberta Labour Relations Board (ALRB).
“We’ve used digital petitions for a long time in terms of people acknowledging their support for the union. The labour board has certified five unions for us already using the exact same process, exact same technology, exact same everything,” he said.
“Somebody in the administrative end of the Labour Relations Board decided that, all of a sudden, the Marmot Ski Basin application, this is going to be a problem.”
Each person is typically required to also have a witness. With electronic petitions, this requirement is now in dispute.
O’Halloran said that the UFCW has built in the technology to verify a person’s identity and other details into their electronic petition as a way of still offering the same level of confirmation.
Beyond that, the ALRB has its own checks.
“They call everybody that signed the petition and says, ‘Did you sign a petition? Did you agree to do this?’ They verified that these people did this,” O’Halloran said.
The UFCW sent a “very strongly worded letter” expressing its dissatisfaction with the Labour Board’s decision, he said.
The 39 workers are all employed in ski safety operations, meaning ski patrol and ski patrol dispatchers, as well as snow farming and avalanche control. O’Halloran said the group approached UFCW for help in “improving their working conditions,” adding that the matter is partially based on treatment and partially on worker compensation and benefits.
None of the workers approached by the Fitzhugh responded to requests for interviews. O’Halloran did say that there was “tons of support” for unionization.
O’Halloran remained adamant that the process is secure and that there shouldn’t be any problem. Local 401 is now waiting on the results of an ALRB hearing.
“That’s the struggle, I think, that the workers have right now. We knew this was going to take some time to get up and going to get into bargaining. I think everybody was planning and expected that when we went back into the next ski season, we would be in a place where we’d be having a union contract and know what their terms and conditions are going to be. We’re just not there yet, unfortunately.”
In an email to the Fitzhugh, ALRB Legal Counsel T.S. Zurbrigg said the board would not be able to comment on these certification proceedings as there is an outstanding decision on this matter.
While unable to provide a precise timeline for the decision to be made and released, she said the board endeavours to release decisions on certification applications as promptly as possible.
Marmot Basin is owned by RMSI-JTAC Equipment Holdings LP. Marmot Basin vice president Brian Rode had no comment regarding the unionization.
O’Halloran said that he is confident that the unionization will proceed. It is a strong group of 39 staff members, he noted. They are supportive of UFCW’s efforts and understanding of the delays, despite their hopes to be farther along the process than they are currently at. The situation is difficult for them as the 2023/24 ski season approaches and Marmot Basin is hiring more staff.
O’Halloran said that this process started because of issues that have yet to be addressed by management. That was why the UFCW Local 401 is involved.
“This is just really about giving a voice to workers, and the workers in these workplaces are the ones that are going to decide what’s going to happen,” he said.
“It’s really the workers that drive these processes and pointing out what the issue is and what those problems are. Our job as a union is take their desires, turn them into legally enforceable contracts, and then we can make sure that they’re being represented properly.”
