Picket lines at Sobeys grocery stores in the Calgary area will remain in place, an Alberta judge has ruled. On Oct. 31, Justice Colin Feasby of the Alberta Court of King’s Bench heard an application from Sobeys Capital Inc. to grant a stay of an Alberta Labour Relations Board (ALRB) decision that gave members of the Teamsters Local Union No. 987 the right to picket outside grocery stores. Sobeys Capital Inc. is the parent company of Sobeys, Safeway and FreshCo grocery stores, among others. The ALRB said the Teamsters could hold demonstrations at the stores given that their jobs required them to deliver goods there. In its application, Sobeys sought a stay of the ALRB decision pending a judicial review. “Sobeys complains that the picketing at grocery stores is causing irreparable harm to their reputation, disturbing the peace, and intimidating customers and employees. Sobeys says that a stay of proceedings should have the effect of preventing picketing at Sobeys grocery stores,” Feasby wrote in his reasons, which were posted Nov. 3. “To remove any doubt about what Sobeys wants, they ask in the alternative for an injunction to restrain the Teamsters from picketing until the judicial review is over.” The Teamsters said any such action would infringe on their Charter right to freedom of expression and “give Sobeys an unjustified advantage in the labour dispute.” Feasby ruled in the Teamsters favour, saying that any stay of the ALRB’s decision would be considered final relief to Sobeys. He said it would take between six to eight months for the court to complete a judicial review of the ALRB order, which would not even be heard until April 2026. He added that Sobeys did not request an expedited hearing for that review nor has a judicial review been scheduled. “Perhaps my view on whether interlocutory relief amounted to final relief would have been different if Sobeys had acted with urgency and sought an expedited hearing from the Court.” Feasby also said Sobeys did not prove the ALRB’s decision was unreasonable. “The ALRB is better placed than the court to address problems with picketing. The ALRB has subject-specific experience and expertise, the capacity to convene hearings or settlement conferences on short notice, and a statutory framework that allows it to grant targeted relief. “Sobeys asks the Court to use its hammer when the ALRB stood ready with a scalpel.” The labour dispute between Sobeys and the Teamsters, made up of 251 employees who works at the company’s retail support centre in Rocky View County, turned into a strike on Sept. 18. The company locked out those workers a short time later. Since the beginning of the strike, those workers have been picketing the retail support centre and a refrigerated warehouse in southeast Calgary. The ALRB decision, dated Oct. 15, allowed those workers to picket a various Sobeys-affiliated grocery stores in the Calgary area.
