Courses

As a Union Steward you will be a champion for your worksite, a grievance handler, and help your fellow workers resolve worksite issues through alternate avenues.

In this course, we will cover: Roles and Responsibilities of a Steward, Interviewing Members, Collective Action, Investigations, Disciplinary and Non-Disciplinary Grievances, Legislation, the Grievance Handling Process from start to finish, including Grievance Writing and Presentation. The program will include duty to accommodate situations and exposure to many other workplace scenarios.

You will be expected to attend to complete the pre-reading online module, all three days of training, and complete a homework assignment within a specific time period to continue on to the mentoring component of the program.

Note: This course is not for people who avoid conflict.

Prerequisites: Intro to Your Union, Basic Conflict Management, Intro to OHS, Contract Interpretation and must be a Nominated Steward.

This course is for: Those who want to learn about labour relations, collective action, and actively represent fellow members. This means going to investigations, filing grievances, collective action, and working with AUPE staff and members to resolve issues.

This course utilizes:

• Lectures
• Polls
• Discussions
• Videos
• Individual, paired and group activities
• Practical application to grievance handling for onsite issues to include homework and mentorship

Learning outcomes:

• Demonstrate grievance-handling steps by interpreting collective agreements.
• Select and complete relevant grievance handling documents to support the grievance.
• Demonstrate interviewing techniques through roleplaying.
• Apply facts from case studies to identify breach of rights within collective agreements, Alberta legislation, including Duty to Accommodate.
• Suggest alternate forums to resolve issues that are not a grievance.
• Apply all the Grievance Handling Steps as per policies 10-14 and 10-16.
• Explain the Union Steward’s role in the Duty of Fair Representation.

Upcoming 'Foundations for Union Stewards' course dates and locations

Calgary:

• December 12-14, 2023

Edmonton:

• December 12-14, 2023

This is a two-day course. The course is also offered online.

This introductory course provides an overview of health and safety in the workplace, with a special focus on the safety rights of workers. We review some history of health and safety issues, laws, the internal responsibility system, hazard identification and AUPE support.

You will learn about assessment tools and gain confidence in contributing towards a culture of safety in the workplace. You will also leave the course with access to valuable resources to continue learning about OHS.

This course is for: Members interested in gaining a basic understanding of Occupational Health and Safety.

Prerequisites: Introduction to Your Union

This course is for: Members interested in gaining a basic understanding of occupational health and safety.

This course utilizes:

• Lecture
• Exercises using legislation
• Case studies
• Videos
• Hands-on activities
• Group discussion
• Multiple choice quizzes

Learning outcomes:

• Describe some historical events and conflicts that led government to pass laws aimed at protecting workers’ health and safety.
• Recognize the difference between the OHS Act, Regulation and Code, and other legislation.
• Tell others about your safety rights, the internal responsibility system, and the obligations of both employers and workers.
• Identify common workplace hazards and how they are associated with injuries and illnesses.
• Evaluate different ways of controlling hazards.
• Examine the intent of workplace injury reporting and the reality of under-reporting.
   

Upcoming 'Introduction to OHS' course dates and locations

Calgary:

• October 11-12, 2023

Edmonton:

• November 1-2, 2023

This course is also offered online.

What does the union do for me, and what is my responsibility to my union?

This course will provide you with a basic overview of how the labour movement was integral to lobbying for the legislated rights and working conditions that we enjoy today. You will review AUPE’s structure and democratic process.

This course will begin your learning journey with AUPE and help offer opportunities to be active within your union.

Prerequisites: None

This course is for: All members

This course utilizes:

• Lecture
• Videos
• Discussions
• Individual and group activities

Note: This course does not teach how to read your collective agreement. This topic is covered in the “Contract Interpretation” course.

Learning outcomes:

• Identify AUPE’s mission statement and union principles.
• Discover history of labour that has brought the union to where it is today.
• Establish how AUPE provides support to its membership.
• Investigate the leadership structure and governance of AUPE from the members at the worksite to Convention.
• Assess various opportunities available to AUPE members.

Upcoming 'Introduction to Your Union' course dates and locations

Calgary:

• October 19, 2023
• November 16, 2023
• December 5, 2023

Edmonton:

• October 12, 2023
• November 15, 2023
• December 5, 2023
   

This is a two-day course.

When you’ve challenged your boss, has someone told you, "That's not in the contract! There's nothing we can do about it!"

Have you and your coworkers ever gotten frustrated with the "official channels" blocking solutions on the worksite?

Is your employer driving you wild by ignoring your issues?

Then this course is for you!

Workplace power will give you the skills you need to build collective power with your coworkers to be able to challenge your employer and improve your working conditions and quality of life at work.

Prerequisite: None

This course is for: All members
 
This course utilizes:

• Lecture
• Videos
• Discussions
• Individual and group activities

 
Learning outcomes:

• Recognize how power operates in the workplace.
• Develop technical skills around workplace organizing such as mapping and leader identification.
• Examine how to have one-to-one organizing conversations.
• Build strategies around addressing issues in the workplace collectively.

Upcoming 'Workplace Power' course dates and locations

Calgary:

• November 15-16, 2023

Edmonton:

• November 7-8, 2023
• December 19-20, 2023

Two-week course; complete at your own pace

In this course, you’ll focus on basic conflict management skills. You’ll look at effective communication as a strategy for preventing negative conflicts and how prevention strategies can be used to address a conflict before it gets destructive. You’ll assess your own conflict management styles (strengths and challenges) and learn the range of options available to you in managing your own conflicts when they arise.

Note: While this course will provide tools for conflict management, we will not be focused on your individual conflict scenario during the course.

Prerequisite: Introduction to Your Union

This course utilizes:

• Readings
• Videos
• Quizzes
• Games
• Discussion boards
• Interactive activities

Setup: This online course can be worked through at your own pace and there will be a facilitator in the course with you. You will have two weeks to complete. After the final date if you have finished all course content and posted to the discussion boards you will receive your completion certificate.

Learning outcomes:

• Describe conflict in the workplace.
• Recognize how your own perceptions of conflict may influence how you deal with conflicts.
• Relate how conflicts are made up of stories.
• Connect our identity makes up our diversity and approach to building relationships.
• Identify the role of communication in conflict.
• Develop a range of interpersonal communication skills for handling conflicts.
• Discover various conflict management styles and their strengths and challenges.
• Compare various strategies to prevent unhealthy conflicts.

Upcoming online 'Basic Conflict Management' course dates:

• October 10-23, 2023
• November 6-20, 2023

AUPE Component Officers require many skills to run their Local/Chapter effectively. This online asynchronous course will aid in providing component officers with the skills and knowledge needed to succeed in their roles. Through videos and activities, the Component Officer training offers information on the responsibilities of officers, building communication skills, and understanding how to support your members.
 
This course is not meant to replace the in-person Local Chair and Vice Chair Workshop training held at AUPE Headquarters but acts as a reference that officers can return to at any time.

Two-week course; complete at your own pace

Your collective agreement can be a powerful tool. You have fought for what is contained in your collective agreement and it is important to enforce your rights within your agreement. In this course, you will learn seven steps to reading a collective agreement, examining contract language, and applying an approach to determine contract violations.

Note: This course is not a forum for discussion on individual workplace issues.

Prerequisite: Introduction to Your Union

This course is for: Members who want to learn the basics to reading and interpreting their collective agreement.

This course utilizes: 

• Readings
• Videos
• Quizzes
• Games
• Discussion boards
• Case studies

Learning outcomes:

• Identify the importance and process to attain an agreement.
• Demonstrate the steps in reading a collective agreement.
• Compare case studies to determine if the language is enforceable or non-enforceable.
• Apply the systematic approach to various scenarios.
• Determine if a workplace issue is grievable and if there are other ways to reach a resolution.

Setup: This online course can be worked through at your own pace and there will be a facilitator in the course with you. You will have two weeks to complete. After the final date if you have finished all course content and posted to the discussion boards you will receive your completion certificate.

Upcoming online 'Contact Interpretation' course dates:

• September 25-October 11, 2023
• November 20-December 4, 2023

Two-week course; complete at your own pace. This course is also offered in-person.

This introductory course provides an overview of health and safety in the workplace, with a special focus on the safety rights of workers. We review some history of health and safety issues, laws, the internal responsibility system, hazard identification and AUPE support.

You will learn about assessment tools and gain confidence in contributing towards a culture of safety in the workplace. You will also leave the course with access to valuable resources to continue learning about OHS.

Prerequisites: Introduction to Your Union

This course is for: Members interested in gaining a basic understanding of occupational health and safety.

This course utilizes:

• Lecture
• Exercises using legislation
• Case studies
• Videos
• Hands-on activities
• Group discussion
• Multiple choice quizzes

Learning outcomes:

• Describe some historical events and conflicts that led government to pass laws aimed at protecting workers’ health and safety.
• Recognize the difference between the OHS Act, Regulation and Code, and other legislation.
• Tell others about your safety rights, the internal responsibility system, and the obligations of both employers and workers.
• Identify common workplace hazards and how they are associated with injuries and illnesses.
• Evaluate different ways of controlling hazards.
• Examine the intent of workplace injury reporting and the reality of under-reporting.

Upcoming online 'Introduction to OHS' course dates:

• October 16-30, 2023

Two-week course; complete at your own pace.

Have you ever wondered why and how workers formed the first trade unions? This introductory course will help you see yourself in the past, to better understand yourself in the present. You will learn how history and activism are integrated, and gain access to the information, traditions, and knowledge that inform our union’s present struggles.

Note: The course will not provide a complete picture of the ‘jigsaw puzzle of the past,’ but rather gives some tools and understanding to continue exploring on your own.

Prerequisite: Introduction to Your Union

This course is for: Anyone who wants to understand the past through a working-class lens and gain some insights into present-day struggles for democracy.
 
This course utilizes:

• A short homework reflection activity that helps you see your own stories as part of history, and to construct a timeline in class.
• Members learn to access historical information through videos, academic articles, primary documents, comics, and photos.
• Students will participate in group activities and give short presentations to teach each other about the topics they are assigned.
• AUPE's award-winning animated labour history video series.

Learning outcomes:

• Identify what qualifies as history and how workers make it collectively
• Sympathize with the workers who formed the first trade unions
• Describe the transition from independent commodity production and craft unionism to mass production and industrial unions
• Discuss aspects of the history of women, indigenous, racialized and LGBTQ workers
• Discover the role AUPE members can play in preserving and sharing labour history in Alberta

Upcoming online 'Introduction to Worker's History' course dates:

• November 6-20, 2023
• December 4-18, 2023

Two-week course; complete at your own pace. This course is also offered in-person.

What does the union do for me, and what is my responsibility to my union?

This course will provide you with a basic overview of how the labour movement was integral to lobbying for the legislated rights and working conditions that we enjoy today. You will review AUPE’s structure and democratic process.

This course will begin your learning journey with AUPE and help offer opportunities to be active within your union.

Prerequisites: None

This course is for: All members

This course utilizes:

• Lecture
• Videos
• Discussions
• Individual activities

Note: This course does not teach how to read your collective agreement. This topic is covered in the “Contract Interpretation” course.

Learning outcomes:

• Identify AUPE’s mission statement and union principles.
• Discover history of labour that has brought the union to where it is today.
• Establish how AUPE provides support to its membership.
• Investigate the leadership structure and governance of AUPE from the members at the worksite to Convention.
• Assess various opportunities available to AUPE members.
   

Upcoming online 'Introduction to Your Union' course dates:

• October 3-17, 2023
• November 6-20, 2023

Unions have long called for joint bodies, such as Labour-Management Committees, to serve as formal structures for dealing with issues and concerns. The key feature of joint committees is equal representation of labour (union) and employer representatives.

Labour-Management Committees can be a critical part of the union’s strategy for representing members. They can be an additional arena for union activity and a mechanism for representing members’ interests as new issues arise. It also can assist in keeping members informed about critical issues.

This course will help you learn to structure a new committee or energize an existing one, develop an agenda and run effective meetings.

Prerequisites: This course is for members who sit on their worksite Joint Labour-Management Committee.

This course utilizes:

• Written Materials
• Videos; and
• Ongoing discussions

Learning outcomes:

• Define the purpose of Labour-Management Committees.
• Illustrate how to establish and maintain a Labour-Management Committee, including the roles and responsibilities of those involved with the Committee.
• Discover how to prepare for a Labour-Management meeting with focus on agenda submissions and labour caucusing.
• Describe how to effectively run the joint meeting and prepare for action items.
• Distinguish the responsibilities following the meetings.

This course allows members of Labour-Management Committees to post discussion topics for feedback from fellow members who also sit on committees. It provides a space for networking and identifying what is working on other committees from your fellow members. The course will remain open for continual idea exchanges and peer feedback.

Two-week course; complete at your own pace.

To join an OHS committee or fulfill the duties of a worksite OHS representative, you’re going to need the knowledge, skills and values that make a culture of safety possible. But the challenge is growing – many employers put safety at the bottom of their to-do list. And what’s worse, Alberta’s UCP government has run our OHS legislation through the paper shredder. It’s time to rise up and fight!

In OHS for Union Activists, you’ll discover the basics of joint committees, and go beyond. We’ll explore why you need to file safety grievances, bargain for safety, and organize collective action for power in your workplace. It’s all about defending the most vulnerable workers and making sure everyone goes home healthy and safe at the end of their shift.

Prerequisite: Introduction to OHS

This course is for: Members who have completed "Intro to OHS" and who want to join a joint OHS committee, learn how to deal with OHS issues, or bargain and organize for safety. AUPE encourages all members interested in taking OHS for Union Activists to also take Foundations for Union Stewards and become a Steward.

This course utilizes:

• Videos and audio recordings
• Readings
• Short exercises - including reviewing the hazard assessment for your job, stories and mini-case studies, and group discussion/Online discussion forum.
• Meetings: This course includes up to three meetings using Zoom videoconferencing.
  Consult the long description in the online registration system for mandatory meeting dates and times.

Learning outcomes:

• Relate to others how your own experiences of workplace health and safety are part of a larger problem that affects workers unequally.
• Explain different processes for resolving OHS problems and holding your employer accountable and describe when it makes sense to try them.
• Describe the duties of joint OHS committee members, how to formally inspect a worksite, and where to find more resources and training.
• Propose improvements in health and safety language in your collective agreement and file grievances to defend your contract and promote a culture of safety.
• Orient your co-workers to health and safety practices and have one-to-one conversations to organize for power.

Upcoming online 'OHS for Union Activists' course dates:

• October 16-30, 2023
• November 20-December 4, 2023

One-day course; available online only.

Strike? Lockout? Essential Services? Scab? What do all these things mean?

Picket Captain Training is your one stop shop to equip you with the tools you need to be a leader at your worksite in the event of a strike or lockout. Workers have the power to make the world come to a standstill, yet it's our wealthy and powerful bosses who have almost all the power over our lives. Strikes and other forms of job action have always been our tools to shift power away from the bosses and into our hands.

This one-day course will go over everything from the steps that lead up to a strike and what to expect on a picket line, to what you need to do to win.

This course is for: Members who want to act as leaders on their worksite in the event of a strike or lockout.

Prerequisites: None

This course utilizes:

• Lectures
• Videos
• Discussions
• Individual and group activities

Learning outcomes:

• Know what to do to prepare ahead of time for the possibility of a strike or lockout.
• Be able to work with your fellow workers to organize a strong and disciplined picket line.
• Be confident in your ability to act as a leader on your worksite in the case of a strike or lockout.

Upcoming online 'Picket Captain Training' course dates:

• November 2, 2023
• December 15, 2023

AUPE falls under the Alberta Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA). PIPA outlines the guidelines that organizations must use to collect and share personal information.

This course will identify what measures you must use to keep people's personal information safe, including:

• Physical Security;
• Technological Security;
• Administrative Security; and
• Procedures to handle breaches and access requests.

You will also learn about the proper use of information, the consequences under the Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA), and properly destroying personal information.

Any AUPE member who requests information must take this PIPA course or sign a declaration.

Prerequisites: None

This course is for: Members who are requesting information from AUPE.