An Alberta ruling tests the limits of employer control over union activity on-site
An Alberta labour board has ruled that a major grocery employer did not violate labour law by banning union campaign buttons from the employer's place of business and investigating three employees. In an addendum decision issued April 13, 2026, Alberta Labour Relations Board Vice Chair William J. Armstrong, K.C. found that Sobeys Capital Incorporated stayed within legal bounds when it prohibited so-called "Second Buttons" worn by employees during an active wage reopener campaign by United Food and Commercial Workers Canada Union, Local No. 401.
The ruling is an addendum to an earlier Board decision, 2024 ALRB 4, issued January 10, 2024. Following that decision, the Union applied to the Court of King's Bench for judicial review. In a decision dated December 11, 2025, the Court identified a gap in the original ruling: while the Board had correctly identified section 148(1)(a)(ii) of the Code as the relevant provision at the outset, it had then conducted its analysis under a different subsection — section 148(1)(a)(i) — and never made findings under section 148(1)(a)(ii), which was the actual basis of the Union's complaint. The Court remitted that specific issue back to the Board while rejecting the Union's other arguments. The matter was returned to the original panel for that determination.
The dispute arose from a union strategy to turn its own...
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