Town of Coaldale workers hit the picket line on Saturday

Posted on September 11, 2025 by Sunny South News

By Kristine Jean
Sunny South News

Locked-out AUPE members with the Town of Coaldale were on the picket line Saturday at the Shift Community Recreation Centre. 

Following a strike vote by the town’s Alberta Union of Provincial Employees (AUPE) unionized workers on Sept. 2 – where they voted 83 per cent in favour of a strike – the Town of Coaldale issued a 72-hour lockout notice to its unionized employees the following day, which took effect on Sept. 6. 

Joining Coaldale workers were other union members from across Alberta, AUPE representatives, including executive members and AUPE president, Guy Smith, who was in Coaldale on Saturday to lend his support to Coaldale workers on the first day of the lockout.  

“It’s pretty rare for employers to lock-out its workers, but that I think, shows how tense these sets of negotiations have got. People are pretty entrenched,” said Smith, adding it could be a long time on the picket line. “I think it’s really important to recognize that whether they’re on strike or locked out, they will get the full support.” 

Smith said of the province’s 100,000 AUPE members, the group of Coaldale’s 50-plus membership may be a small group but “their struggle is just as important,” and noted support for Coaldale workers from members from Edmonton, Red Deer, Okotoks, Calgary, and Lethbridge, who joined them on the picket line Saturday. 

“I’m really thrilled to see so many different parts of our union here – leadership from different locals and different sectors of the union here, to support these workers,” said Smith.  

Several Town of Coaldale councillors also stopped by the picket line on Saturday to listen to workers and took time to speak with Smith as well.   

“I thanked them for coming and listening directly to these workers and also seeing the solidarity and the support that they have too,” said Smith, adding that although they may not necessarily take the side of the workers, it was good to see them there. “I think it’s important that the employer recognize that.” 

Town of Coaldale workers joined several AUPE representatives and Coaldale residents on Friday, prior to the official start of the lockout, at a community-information event and barbecue.  

AUPE vice-president Curtis Jackson was in Coaldale Friday and stressed the union’s desire to go back to the bargaining table.  

“At the end of the day, we just want to get back to the table – we just want to negotiate and unfortunately, we’ve been hitting road block after road block,” said Jackson, noting the town’s final offer included some “pretty significant” rollbacks. 

“In this case, nobody is taking rollbacks right now. Everybody is dealing with cost of living increases, everybody is 20 per cent behind where they were 10 years ago and that has real impact,” he added. “That impacts the people that live and work in Coaldale, it impacts their ability to put food on the table, to keep their lights on and to contribute to the community businesses in Coaldale.”

Coaldale resident Linda Sartison was one of several out for the community-information event on Friday. 

“I want to know and find out exactly how they (AUPE) feel and how the town feels,” Sartison. “As a taxpayer, I don’t want my taxes going up either.” 

She said she was there to learn and gather information, and wants to speak with town representatives as well. Sartison hopes to see the town and the union work with the situation and “try to come to some type of agreement.” 

“If the town is not coming back to the bargaining table, I would encourage them to come back and try to work together,” said Sartison.  

Former Town of Coaldale employee, Kay Ruff, who worked as a utility clerk in the 1980’s also shared her thoughts on the situation while attending AUPE’s community-information event on Friday. 

“If (workers) get locked out, we don’t resolve anything with that,” said Ruff.  “They lose, we lose, everybody loses.”

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, 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 AUPE’s requests in negotiations were not unreasonable. 

“What I call unreasonable is an unwillingness to get back to the table and actually bargain,” said Jackson. “That is unreasonable and that’s what we want – we don’t want to force the town into giving us every single penny we’re demanding. We want the town to come back to the table and to bargain in good faith with us.”      

Smith said things between the town and its unionized workers may need to calm down and temperatures cool, before returning to the negotiation table. 

“It means cooling-down the temperature so you can actually open up lines of communication,” said Smith. “That might not be possible for a while. It’s red-hot right now, but eventually, it’s about saying nobody really wants this. This isn’t good for the workers, it’s not good for the employer, it’s not good for the citizens so how do we resolve it,” he added. 

“Breakdown those barriers and start talking with each other. We all want the same thing at the end of the day – a good, solid, supported workforce that supports this community,” said Smith.  

With files from Nathan Reiter.