Coaldale locks out workers after union votes to strike

By Lethbridge Herald on September 4, 2025.

Nathan Reiter
Lethbridge Herald
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

In response to a strike vote by Alberta Union of Public Employees (AUPE) members in Coaldale Tuesday night, the Town of Coaldale has issued the union a 72-hour lockout notice. 

The town employees voted 83 per cent in favour of a strike according to a union news release.

In an interview with the Herald, AUPE vice-president Curtis Jackson says the tactics that the town has employed have not been typical.

“The Town of Coaldale, headed up by their (chief administrative officer Kalen Hastings), have been bargaining with our members along the lines in a way that we don’t typically see from a union standpoint,” said Jackson. “That includes emailing our members directly. They forced a vote on the contract on the members against the negotiating team’s opinion or wishes, and really trying underhandedly to pass what they feel is a fair deal. Unfortunately, this fair deal that they’re talking about contains a consistent amount of rollbacks, and our members are just not interested in taking rollbacks.”

On Aug. 29, the Town of Coaldale submitted an application to the Alberta Labour Relations Board (ALRB) to conduct a single-employer lockout, which was the first legal step required in order to serve a lockout notice to unionized employees.

The town’s offer was a pay raise of 17 per cent over the next four years in exchange for what the town called “a few modest rollbacks.” Some of those rollbacks include overtime rates being changed from double to time-and-a-half, a partial payout of unused sick leave be discontinued at the annual amount of sick days remain at 12, callouts to be paid at time-and-a-half instead of double and that the group RRSP program be discontinued. 

Jackson said the numbers the town has claimed were contained in the offer do not reflect what was brought forward to the union at the bargaining table. 

“Our offer right now, as I understand, is approximately 19 per cent over four years, but that includes actual market adjustments based on our data. It doesn’t touch benefits or RRSPs. There are a few minor monetary items on the table, but the employers never responded to our last offer. Our members aren’t ridiculous here. If the offer actually was 17 per cent over four years and the rollbacks removed, it would have been looked at seriously. But at this point, we’re getting a bunch of misinformation in the press, stating what has been offered and what our employees are voting no against. The numbers that the town of Coaldale is posting just aren’t true; they’re not there in the agreement for the majority of our staff.

“Unfortunately, we’ve gotten to this point that we’re essentially trading numbers through the media. “

“This kind of negotiation should be done at the bargaining table, but unfortunately, the town just has no interest in bargaining at the bargaining table.”

According to an AUPE press release, the town of Coaldale spends $3 million annually on 29 senior staff with a front line work force number of 43. In comparison, the City of Lethbridge has 29 out-of-scope staff and 900 permanent workers. The Special Areas Board which administers parts of rural Alberta including the communities of Consort, Empress, Hanna, Oyen, Veteran and Youngstown has 14 out-of-scope staff and 115 front line workers.

The Herald reached out on numerous occasions to request an interview with Coaldale mayor Jack Van Rijn, but were denied. The town did provide a written response to several questions the Herald asked. 

The town pointed to Coaldale’s staffing model as a reason for the numbers of workers looking different on paper than other communities. Coaldale contracts policing, waste collection, water treatment and does not have an indoor pool or transit system which contribute to union worker counts in other cities. 

A portion of the town’s written response to the Herald, attributed to Jonathan Wensveen, the Twon’s manager of government relations, reads:

“AUPE alleges that the Town of Coaldale has ’26 managers for 43 unionized staff.’ This is a deliberate distortion. Non-union employees include not only directors and managers, but also professional and technical staff — such as engineers, planners, and accountants— who perform specialized roles that are legally excluded from union membership. These are working professionals, not just “managers.” The law itself stipulates that staff with confidential labour relations access, financial authority, hiring/firing authority, or who practice in professional fields cannot be unionized. Pretending otherwise is misleading. Furthermore, no employee at the Town is purely occupied with “managing”. Some of them manage as a portion of their job, in addition to carrying out many other duties”

In response to Jackson calling the numbers presented in the town’s proposal inaccurate, the Town indicated that the Alberta Labour Relations Board has verified the proposal as accurate.