Coaldale’s business community applauds town and council’s lockout stance at monthly Chamber meeting

Posted on October 2, 2025 by Sunny South News

By Kristine Jean
Sunny South News

The Coaldale business community is showing their support for the town and council in regards to the ongoing labour dispute. 
Town of Coaldale CAO Kalen Hastings was the guest speaker at the Coaldale Chamber of Commerce monthly lunch meeting on Sept. 17, where he provided an overview and update on the labour dispute between the town and its unionized workers, represented by the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees (AUPE). 

In his presentation, Hastings pointed out the timeline of negotiations between the town and the union, that began Sept. 11, 2024, and included six in-person meetings (negotiating rounds), two formal days of mediation and numerous letters and emails exchanged between the parties, as well as the town’s final offer to the union, as outlined in Comprehensive Offer #3. 

Hastings spoke about unionized positions with the Town of Coaldale and their respective hourly wages as of Dec. 31 2024, including the proposed wage increases for 2025 to 2028 in actual numbers. He also noted the percentage increase of each position, year over year over year, as well as the running total of the collective increase per individual, unionized employee. 

“We averaged what the per cent increase is over a four-year period for all of the employees. That’s 23.13 per cent – so the 17 per cent included the market increase and the general wage increases. What it did not include in the average was the applicable grid increments that employees would receive on top of that over a four-year period,” said Hastings. “The 23.13 (per cent) does cost-capture the grid increments that certain staff would receive, so if you want to factor-in what your total compensation over a four-year period would be, for the full-time, permanent, unionized employees – that we have who are picketing right now, the answer is 23.13, would be the average increase that they would receive over a four-year period.”

Hastings also detailed the town’s efforts as an employer, to ensure that staff was given every opportunity to see and understand the offer they made (in Comprehensive Offer #3), that eventually included sending emails with their offer packages directly to staff for information, once the proper process of submitting offers to the union was completed. The final offer was put to staff directly for a vote, which Hastings noted was permitted under Section 69 of the Alberta Labour Relations Code.  

Following his presentation, Hastings took several questions from chamber members, including Town of Coaldale Mayor Jack Van Rijn, who was joined by several other council members at the meeting. The mayor asked Hastings to explain how the town is coping with the (lockout) positions and address the staff members that have decided to cross the picket line.  

While the work stoppage continues, the Town of Coaldale is in the process of hiring temporary workers, noted Hastings, adding that so far, more that 1,000 applications have been received for more than 25 jobs that have been posted.

“During a labour stoppage, as an employer we have the ability to rely on a combination of tools to continue running. Those tools include additional contract services,” explained Hastings, noting non-unionized town staff have been picking up and doing double duty. “We are able to hire temporary replacement workers, so what we did in order to ensure that we can maintain service levels, is we posted all of the unionized positions that we had at the town for the purpose of hiring additional employees to continue operating.” 

  Hastings told chamber members that there’s not a provincial or federal law that prohibits employees from coming back to work during a labour stoppage.

“We have posted all of the jobs online. There is nothing unlawful if somebody who used to be an employee, re-applies to one of the positions and there’s nothing unlawful if we decide to hire them after they re-apply to those positions,” he said. “Even during a labour stoppage, people do have choices and they have options. What option or what choice they make, that’s totally up to them,” added Hastings, noting in this instance, the terms offered in Comprehensive Offer #3 would apply as would signing an individual employment contract with the town.  

Several chambers members in attendance commended the town and council for the position they’ve taken with regards to the lockout, but as one member stated they “don’t know where this ends up.” 

“The labour stoppage ends once the two parties can ink a deal. That could be one week, two weeks, one month, there isn’t a specific timeline prescribed by the labour code about when you have to reach a deal with the other party,” said Hastings. “That’s why indefinite, although that is kind of a scary concept to contemplate, the answer is it depends on the willingness of both parties to reach a deal and then that’s how this ends.”

One question from the floor asked if the town could scrap the union altogether and start over with the employees. Hastings said the town employees have been represented by a union since 2011.          

“Whether there’s unionization or not, it is 100 per cent an employee choice and we respect their choice. However, council has the ability to say yes or no to demands that the union may or may not make,” he said. “This is where there is a conflict, there is an impasse between what they think their members deserve and what our council, who approves the budget and represents the citizens, thinks is appropriate,” Hastings added.

In addition to providing an update on the labour dispute, he noted a town survey for the business community that is asking for their feedback, in particular, for their thoughts on the lockout situation, on the deal the town has offered to its workers, and what advice they have for the town on how to resolve the current labour dispute. 

“We do want to hear what you have to say about something that does affect you, as a key stakeholder in our community,” said Hastings. 

Other questions asked about bringing in a mediator, whether the town will stick to its final offer and whether the town is prepared to entertain binding arbitration. 

“I can’t comment on what we’re going to do next. I don’t think that would be fair to the union, to negotiate in public like that,” said Hastings. “But ultimately this is something that is a regular discussion item at the council table and we are still in discussions with the union, but I don’t think it would be fair to comment on what do we do or not do without having that conversation with them face to face.” 

Hastings noted that unless council indicates otherwise, binding arbitration is not something that the town “has entertained at this time,” he said. 

“Until there’s a deal it’s difficult to give any prescribed timelines on what’s next or how long this can go because we don’t know,” said Hastings. “But we are prepared to continue to maintain service levels for as long as it takes to get a deal that council thinks is in the best interest of the community.”