Alderney Gate cleaning contractor fires employees to bust union drive, according to legal complaint filed by SEIU Local 2

Union seeks remedies against Imperial Cleaners Limited at the Dartmouth site

DARTMOUTH, Nova Scotia, Dec. 03, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- “Imperial blatantly violated ... the Act by terminating” a third of the workforce at Alderney Gate “in an effort to defeat the organizing campaign and create a chilling effect on other employees,” according to a legal complaint filed by the Service Employees International Union Local 2 last Friday at the Nova Scotia Labour Board.

According to a second Unfair Labour Practice (ULP) complaint filed yesterday the employer has also retaliated against family members of Union supporters.

The Union is seeking “an order that the affected employees be reinstated to their positions and made whole for any damages suffered as a result of the employer's violations of the Act”, and remedial certification, among other remedies.

“I worked hard for Imperial Cleaners,” said Stan, one of the terminated employees, who is fearful of further reprisals. “When they asked me to work more, I said yes. When they asked me if I knew anyone that they could hire, I said yes and they hired my cousin. It was only when I started standing up for myself and others, they started to target me. I learned the painful truth that hard work does not mean respect or fair treatment,” he said.

Stan was hired by Imperial in October 2024. They paid him $17 per hour to perform cleaning services at the Woodside Ferry Terminal starting in February 2025. His regular hours of work were Monday to Friday from 8 am to 9 pm, regularly working more than forty-eight hours a week. According to the ULP, Imperial never paid him overtime. In March he was transferred to Alderney Gate.

Imperial workers began speaking with Union organizers in February 2025. In November Stan became an active, open Union supporter. In the weeks prior, he raised issues with management about the unreasonable workloads. He explained the benefits of joining the Union and SEIU’s Justice for Janitors movement to the other Imperial employees at Alderney Gate. In his discussions with other employees, Stan attributed a September wage increase they had received to an Application for Judicial Review by SEIU and related advocacy. Alderney Gate and The Woodside Ferry Terminals are both city-owned sites subject to a living wage of $28.30, however Imperial had been paying most workers well below that rate.

By late November, Stan and his cousin were known by most, if not all Imperial employees at Alderney Gate, to be Union supporters. Then, on November 27, an Imperial manager terminated Stan's employment in the morning via text message. Later that afternoon, and shortly after he arrived for work, Imperial terminated Stan’s cousin’s employment as well.

Four days after he had reported for his shift and three after the Union filed the first legal complaint, Stan’s cousin was told he could come back to work and that his termination had been a “misunderstanding” despite Imperial management asking another worker to fill his shifts on Thursday, Friday and Sunday. Stan remains terminated and a chilling effect has taken hold of the workplace.

The Alderney Gate employees are particularly vulnerable due to their immigration status and working in a precarious industry. There is a Union certification vote scheduled for Thursday December 4, but according to the complaint, the terminations and retaliation have had a chilling effect on other employees' willingness to exercise their rights under the Act.

BACKGROUND

When it came to deteriorating working conditions at Alderney Gate, the writing was on the wall. SEIU Local 2 attempted to warn municipal officials of what was to come months ago.

In January 2025, SEIU Local 2 janitors working for GDI in the HRM, including Alderney Gate, ratified a new collective agreement with important gains after a hard-fought campaign. In addition to raises, workers won a reduction in the time of service needed to be eligible for benefits, addressed concerns about unreasonable workloads, and won a pension plan commencing in 2027.

In February 2025, just weeks after cleaners sign new collective agreement, the HRM Council decided to go with a cheaper non-union contractor, and it predictably resulted in deteriorating conditions for workers.

The lack of successor rights in the region means contracted workers like the GDI cleaners at Alderney Gate, are susceptible to losing gains they make through collective bargaining with a contract flip. In fact, all twelve workers lost their jobs. SEIU held a rally at city hall at the time to raise awareness about the issue. https://justiceforjanitors.ca/rally-outside-halifax-city-hall-feb-25/

Imperial was successful in bidding for the Woodside Ferry Terminal and Alderney Gate cleaning contracts and took them over in February and March 2025 respectively. The previous cleaning contractor assigned approximately twelve employees to service the site and, even with that staffing level, faced challenges maintaining cleaning quality due to ongoing issues at the location, including vandalism, drug paraphernalia, and conditions associated with mental health and cost-of-living crises. Imperial, by contrast, assigned only six employees to perform the same work.

Later that month SEIU wrote to Halifax Regional Municipality Chief Administrative Officer Cathie OToole advising that, through interviews with nonunion Imperial employees working at multiple HRM-owned properties, SEIU had learned that Imperial was not paying its employees a living wage as required under HRM's Living Wage Policy. SEIU advised HRM that this constituted a direct violation of the living wage requirement applicable to eligible contracts awarded under the 2022 Administrative Order.

On February 28, 2025, SEIU filed an application for judicial review of the Halifax Regional Municipality's decision to award the Alderney Gate cleaning contract to Imperial. In the Application for Judicial Review, SEIU alleged Imperial should not have been awarded the contract because Imperial's bid would not provide for a fair or living wage in compliance with Procurement Policy (Administrative Order Number 2022-0120-ADM) (the "Living Wage Policy").

SEIU Local 2 represents 20,000 workers in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Ontario, Manitoba, Alberta and British Columbia. We are proud members of the largest, fastest growing and most dynamic union in North America.

Media Contact
Tina Oh | 902-955-9966
toh@seiulocal2.ca

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